“When you grow up you tend to get told that the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family life, have fun, save a little money. That's a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it… Once you learn that, you'll never be the same again.” ~ Steve Jobs How do you approach rules? Do you follow the rules? Are rules a hinderance or an asset? How do you evaluate and value rules? Who made the rules?
Hunter Powers: Welcome to The One. I'm your host, Hunter Powers broadcasting live from our nation's capital, Washington, DC. Today's One idea is who made the rules? Did you make them? I didn't make them. Someone made them. Who made the rules? What is a rule? A guide for conduct. How we act, a custom, a habit, the accepted procedure, the generalization, the standard by which we are judged. The rule. There are rules everywhere. I don't think anyone suggests that they know all the rules and people are okay with this. This is fine. I know that there are rules. I don't necessarily know what they all are. And I would suggest that in general we feel comforted that there are rules because the rules suggest structure and the structure is the antidote to chaos. And in general, we prefer structure over chaos. And so the fact that the rules exist, that there are rules suggest that this experience will have some structure, that it will represent standards of judgment and provide us some direction on the procedures by which to get through it. But who made the rules?
Hunter Powers: Rules have many different contexts. The rules of a game versus the rules of life. Are they the same? No. Unless you view life as a game, then maybe. But breaking a rule in a game of cards is not the same as breaking a rule in the game of life. And why is that? Well, it's because of the consequences. Like what is the difference between a suggestion and a rule? The rule has a consequence. The suggestion is the prescribed guide for conduct of action, but it is the consequence that turns it into a rule. Do you follow the rules? Do most people follow the rules? I think the answer is that in general, yes. People in general follow the rules because the rules are by definition generalizations, but there's another part of rules and that is their malleability.
Hunter Powers: By default, we assume rules are these very strict or rigid structures. The rules said this, you do this or this will happen, but is that actually the case? Is it a strictly deterministic relationship? If you do this, this will happen or is it stochastic? There is some probability of that happening if you do this. Let's take speeding as an example, and maybe I'm biased because I live in a larger city, but I would suggest that less than 1% of drivers on the road do not speed, and we will define speeding as driving in excess of the posted speed limit. In fact, you will likely receive the horn if you drive exactly at the speed limit. Everyone goes a few miles over. Why is that? Do they not know the rule? Do they not know the consequence? You could get a ticket, you could pay a huge fine, you could lose your license, you could never drive again. You could lose your job because you can't get to your job and yet still you flagrantly violate the rule. Why?
Hunter Powers: Well, because of the malleability of the rule, the stochasticity of the consequence, you know that merely violating the rule, going a few miles over is highly unlikely to produce any real consequence. And so you break it, you violate because it's worth it. Whether it's worth it to you to get to your destination a little bit faster or worth it to you to avoid the scrutiny of your peers as you drive at exactly the speed limit, you violate the rule. So while on the surface we think this notion that we follow the rules, when we examine it a little closer, we can find clear violations of this idea, but who made the rules?
Hunter Powers: Rules are often perceived as negative things, the consequence of a rule is often a negative thing, but it doesn't have to be. It can be positive. In a race, the first person to cross the finish line, their consequence is they win the race. Maybe they win the prize, maybe they won $1 million because they cross the finish line first. And that was the rule. It wasn't negative was it? So rules are these customs or habits or procedures and they have consequences, and these consequences can be extremely positive to extremely negative. You can win $1 million or you could be sentenced to death. It's a wide spectrum and there's this other quality of rules that weakens them. And that is that they must work for the masses. They must generalize.
Hunter Powers: We can't have a different rule for every individual, even though we are individuals and we all have different abilities and different traits. Some people might be qualified to drive a little bit faster, but everyone can't have a different speed limit, although we do have some notion of this, the police can be seen speeding through the streets sometimes. They are not required to follow this rule because they get a special carve-out. But in general, we can't have carve-outs for everyone. And so we must generalize. We must say that everyone will drive 35 miles per hour through the streets and that this is the best for everyone, but it is not necessarily the best for you as an individual. So what should you do? How should you approach rules?
Hunter Powers: I think the first part is to understand the rules. Ignorance is not an excuse and to understand the incentives and lie behind the rules. What is the rule incentivizing you to do? What are rules, but an abstraction of incentives. And this incentive gives you some notion of where the value may lie. Are you receiving the value or is someone else receiving the value? Understand the consequences and then look for imbalances. Just because there's a negative consequence does not mean that you should follow the rule. Perhaps the value from breaking the rule is greater than the consequence of following it.
Hunter Powers: "If I go there will be trouble and if I stay it will be double. Should I stay or should I go?" So said The Clash, and in this situation, should you break the rule and go or you will find trouble or should you stay and have double trouble? You should go, right, because the better consequence that you violated the rule. So understand the consequences and look for imbalances. We're taught to do this in games or it's encouraged to a much greater degree. But we're not taught to do it in life. To understand the rules, the laws, the structures that are in place and the consequences of the rules, the laws and structures that are in place, and to look for the imbalances.
Hunter Powers: And then the last part is to estimate the stochasticity of these rules. Let's go back to speeding. You drive one mile per hour above the speed limit. What is the probability that you are going to be pulled over? Those blue lights are going to start flashing and you'll receive a ticket? Well, it's incredibly low. I'm sure it does happen, but if we observe 99% of the drivers on the street, there doesn't seem to be a great deal of concern that it will happen. Understanding this stochasticity is how you then properly value the consequences. And the insight here is that rules are the structure that defines the box, and this is valuable. But that rules being the structure that defines the box can be used as tools. They're the tools that made the box and they're a tool that most people don't use. They can be interpreted, they can be changed.
Hunter Powers: You don't like a rule, convince the masses of a new rule. They can reveal hidden structures because the rule incentivizes you to go a very certain path. Follow this path and this rule will reward you. But you can also ask the inverse question of where is this rule steering you away from? Or what are the other areas that this rule is not exploring? Because there must be something there. There is a reason why and who made the rules.
Hunter Powers: And I will leave you today with a quote from Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple. In an interview relatively early in his career, Steve Jobs said, "When you grow up, you tend to get told the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much, try to have a nice family, have fun, save a little money. That's a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact. Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it. You can influence it. You can build your own things that other people can use. Once you learn that, you'll never be the same again."
Hunter Powers: And that is your One idea for today. I am Hunter Powers, broadcasting live from our nation's capital, as we say in the city, DC proper, and until next time.