I’m still mulling this post over. As I said on the facebook version of it, I find it a nice crystallized model, if even it’s oversimplified.
The part that made me go “hmm, this seems promising” was the integration of motivation and grieving. I’ve found myself thinking a lot about grieving lately. Unfortunately I don’t have anything concrete to add to the discussion but I have this can’t-quite-put-my-finger-on-it sense that there’s something important there I want better integrated into the rationalist skillset.
I’ve been working on something similar myself. I’ve identified four qualitatively different categories of “things of value” that we humans seem geared toward:
Experiences—Disneyland, for example, sells both the experience of riding the rides (which can be had at any amusement park or carnival midway) and also the experience of entering a world of stories and imagination.
Esteem—Every culture and subculture has a preferred form of esteem, usually expressed in measures of respect granted to people. The desired flavor of esteem can be signaled via clothing and/or body language when in mixed company such as walking down the street.
Agency (which is to individual choices what wealth is to currency)
Resources—anything which can be used to reach a goal or fulfill a purpose.
All products and services on the market can be described as a mix of these, or in terms of avoiding their loss. Economics is the study of human motivation toward things of value and away from their loss, either for one’s self, one’s ingroup, or for hire.
More concretely, “wants” are emotions inclining the feeler toward things of value and “needs” are emotions inclining the feeler away from their loss. It’s a simple binary, and we can construct the “forest” of economics by zooming out from our focus on individual “trees”.
Example: I want to eat, to gain the experience, and I need to eat, to avoid hunger and eventual harm from lack of food (starvation). Eating at a fast food restaurant alleviates the need for me to cook in order to eat. I perceive myself purchasing convenience, which is at once a resource (savings of time and energy in cooking and cleaning up after cooking), a measure of esteem (I pay a group of servants to cook my meal), an experience (I sit in my car waiting and listening to the radio and don’t have to experience the moment-to-moment vagaries of cooking for myself), and a measure of agency (I am able to do all of the above, free to make this decision which affects my future in the short and long term, as long as I can pay to do so). Therefore, when hungry or craving, I see fast food as a net positive thing of value.
Grieving, consequently, is the process of processing and limiting the loss (in the present, potential future, or remembered past) of things of value. Grieving occurs when needs aren’t met.
Stability’s value is as a loss-prevention or expense-prevention resource: a status of being predictable or being resistant to immediate entropy in some way. It’s such a broadly applicable concept that its benefits are practically ubiquitous, and it adds all the types of value to various circumstances.
Stability of a situation, as in the expectation of not having to anticipate much change, allows you to conserve resources you might otherwise need to devote toward anticipation of contingencies; you can also thus experience the opposite of anxiety.
A medical patient who is stable is in less danger of dying; this kind of stability is a resource both to the patient’s continued existence (agency, experience, utility to society as a resource) and to their medical team who don’t need to expend resources to immediately and actively maintain the patient’s life medically.
Being seen as a stable person by the standards of a given group grants you esteem from that group, because you’re predictable and will not cost them sudden, unexpected loss of things of value such as their group’s esteem in the eyes of whichever society they esteem. A person being perceived by police as mentally stable and/or morally stable (in the sense of being unlikely to commit assault or other crimes) grants the police a sense that you’re predictable and thus not an immediate danger that needs to be violently subdued. In other words, you have the esteem due a member of the law-abiding community.
Stability of government gains a country more opportunities for international trade (resources) and gains its citizenry and businesses a credit rating (which is a resource based on how much one is esteemed as a reliable payer of debts by lenders).
Stable isotopes, which are not radioactive, are radiologically safe to touch or handle. However, this doesn’t mean it’s entirely safe! Lead is not safe to touch because even though it’s stable enough to be used for radioactive shielding, it has neurotoxic chemical effects. For low-energy purposes such as home-building, stable chemicals and elements are more valuable resources; for high-energy purposes, such as weapons or manufacturing, unstable chemicals or elements are more valuable resources.
I’m still mulling this post over. As I said on the facebook version of it, I find it a nice crystallized model, if even it’s oversimplified.
The part that made me go “hmm, this seems promising” was the integration of motivation and grieving. I’ve found myself thinking a lot about grieving lately. Unfortunately I don’t have anything concrete to add to the discussion but I have this can’t-quite-put-my-finger-on-it sense that there’s something important there I want better integrated into the rationalist skillset.
I’ve been working on something similar myself. I’ve identified four qualitatively different categories of “things of value” that we humans seem geared toward:
Experiences—Disneyland, for example, sells both the experience of riding the rides (which can be had at any amusement park or carnival midway) and also the experience of entering a world of stories and imagination.
Esteem—Every culture and subculture has a preferred form of esteem, usually expressed in measures of respect granted to people. The desired flavor of esteem can be signaled via clothing and/or body language when in mixed company such as walking down the street.
Agency (which is to individual choices what wealth is to currency)
Resources—anything which can be used to reach a goal or fulfill a purpose.
All products and services on the market can be described as a mix of these, or in terms of avoiding their loss. Economics is the study of human motivation toward things of value and away from their loss, either for one’s self, one’s ingroup, or for hire.
More concretely, “wants” are emotions inclining the feeler toward things of value and “needs” are emotions inclining the feeler away from their loss. It’s a simple binary, and we can construct the “forest” of economics by zooming out from our focus on individual “trees”.
Example: I want to eat, to gain the experience, and I need to eat, to avoid hunger and eventual harm from lack of food (starvation). Eating at a fast food restaurant alleviates the need for me to cook in order to eat. I perceive myself purchasing convenience, which is at once a resource (savings of time and energy in cooking and cleaning up after cooking), a measure of esteem (I pay a group of servants to cook my meal), an experience (I sit in my car waiting and listening to the radio and don’t have to experience the moment-to-moment vagaries of cooking for myself), and a measure of agency (I am able to do all of the above, free to make this decision which affects my future in the short and long term, as long as I can pay to do so). Therefore, when hungry or craving, I see fast food as a net positive thing of value.
Grieving, consequently, is the process of processing and limiting the loss (in the present, potential future, or remembered past) of things of value. Grieving occurs when needs aren’t met.
The categories are good, but I feel that the list is incomplete. Where would you put, for example, stability?
Stability’s value is as a loss-prevention or expense-prevention resource: a status of being predictable or being resistant to immediate entropy in some way. It’s such a broadly applicable concept that its benefits are practically ubiquitous, and it adds all the types of value to various circumstances.
Stability of a situation, as in the expectation of not having to anticipate much change, allows you to conserve resources you might otherwise need to devote toward anticipation of contingencies; you can also thus experience the opposite of anxiety.
A medical patient who is stable is in less danger of dying; this kind of stability is a resource both to the patient’s continued existence (agency, experience, utility to society as a resource) and to their medical team who don’t need to expend resources to immediately and actively maintain the patient’s life medically.
Being seen as a stable person by the standards of a given group grants you esteem from that group, because you’re predictable and will not cost them sudden, unexpected loss of things of value such as their group’s esteem in the eyes of whichever society they esteem. A person being perceived by police as mentally stable and/or morally stable (in the sense of being unlikely to commit assault or other crimes) grants the police a sense that you’re predictable and thus not an immediate danger that needs to be violently subdued. In other words, you have the esteem due a member of the law-abiding community.
Stability of government gains a country more opportunities for international trade (resources) and gains its citizenry and businesses a credit rating (which is a resource based on how much one is esteemed as a reliable payer of debts by lenders).
Stable isotopes, which are not radioactive, are radiologically safe to touch or handle. However, this doesn’t mean it’s entirely safe! Lead is not safe to touch because even though it’s stable enough to be used for radioactive shielding, it has neurotoxic chemical effects. For low-energy purposes such as home-building, stable chemicals and elements are more valuable resources; for high-energy purposes, such as weapons or manufacturing, unstable chemicals or elements are more valuable resources.
That was a lovely example, thank you!