Thank you for additional detail, I understand your point about conformity to rules, the way that increases predictability, and how that allows for larger groups to coordinate effectively. I think I am getting hung up on the word trust, as I tend to think of it as when I take for granted someone has good intentions towards me and basic shared values. (e.g. they can’t think whats best for me is to kill me) I think I am pretty much on board with everything else about the article.
I wonder if another productive way to think about all this would be (continuing to riff on interfaces, and largely restating what you have already said) something like: when people form relationships they understand how each other will behave, relationships enable coordination, humans can handle understanding and coordinating up to Dunbar’s number, to work around this limit above 150 we begin grouping people- essentially abstracting them back down to a single person (named for example ‘Sales’ or ‘The IT Department’), if that group of people follow rules/process then the group becomes understandable and we can have a relationship and coordinate with that group, and if we all follow shared rules, everyone can understand and coordinate with everyone else without having to know them. I think I am pretty much agreeing with the point you make about small groups being able to predict each other’s behavior, and that being key. Instead of saying one person trusts another person, I’d favor one person understands another person. I think this language is compatible with your examples of sarcasm, lies, and the prisoner’s dilemma.
Anyway, I’ll leave it at that. Thank you for the discussion.
Thank you for additional detail, I understand your point about conformity to rules, the way that increases predictability, and how that allows for larger groups to coordinate effectively. I think I am getting hung up on the word trust, as I tend to think of it as when I take for granted someone has good intentions towards me and basic shared values. (e.g. they can’t think whats best for me is to kill me) I think I am pretty much on board with everything else about the article.
I wonder if another productive way to think about all this would be (continuing to riff on interfaces, and largely restating what you have already said) something like: when people form relationships they understand how each other will behave, relationships enable coordination, humans can handle understanding and coordinating up to Dunbar’s number, to work around this limit above 150 we begin grouping people- essentially abstracting them back down to a single person (named for example ‘Sales’ or ‘The IT Department’), if that group of people follow rules/process then the group becomes understandable and we can have a relationship and coordinate with that group, and if we all follow shared rules, everyone can understand and coordinate with everyone else without having to know them. I think I am pretty much agreeing with the point you make about small groups being able to predict each other’s behavior, and that being key. Instead of saying one person trusts another person, I’d favor one person understands another person. I think this language is compatible with your examples of sarcasm, lies, and the prisoner’s dilemma.
Anyway, I’ll leave it at that. Thank you for the discussion.