As my friends know, I try not to do a lot of thinking. Thinking is clinically proven to be bad for health and critical thinking is especially injurious at multiple levels. However, in spite of my best intentions, I do sometimes indulge in thinking.
There is no solution, only optimization.
We often have conversations where we need to evaluate two or more options (I am deliberately avoiding the word "solution" here). Of course, I am seldom an unbiased observer in the conversation if I have skin in the game. However, I try to stay as unbiased as I can in asking: what are we trying to optimize for here?
For example, let us take the concept of working for a wage or a salary. If you are a worker, it is typically easy to forget that by working for wages/salary or even on commission, you are always leaving money on the table. It only makes sense for the business to pay you less than the value you generate for the business. If you cost more than you are worth, they will quickly get rid of you. For example, Netflix famously compares itself to a professional sports team (and not a family) where each team member is there for the benefit of the team and nothing else. The goal of the organization is paramount. The well-being of the individual team member only matters so far as it helps fulfill the goals of the organization.
The organization does bear some risk. This is true. However, if the organization is good at what it does, it will quickly identify under performing or unnecessary human resources and eliminate them from the payroll. Again, back to the netflix play book: it talks about how it is essential that the team identify any team members the team will not absolutely fight to retain and bid them goodbye as early as possible so the role can be held vacant for someone who is "worth" that position.
As you can see, the play book optimizes for what they hope is best for the organization. It is absolutely unapologetic in its mission (and that's a good thing!). However, you are not an organization. You are a squishy protein-based life form.
Why should you care about all this gobbledygook? Quite simply, you should care because you want to see where the priorities lie and the organization optimizes for and decide how likely it is that affects your priorities and what you want to optimize for. If the two don't match, I imagine you will likely have a bad time.
This exercise goes beyond getting a more beneficial paycheck or severance package. This exercise helps us learn the world around us and empathize with everyone including "corrupt" and "evil" people. We will learn how there is no such thing as "good" or "evil" but rather local and regional systems have different optimizations based on different priorities. I am not saying there is a grand design (although you could probably abstract one). I am rather only talking about local, regional, and global systems that have their own priorities and how their interactions effect change in the world we live in.
tl;dr When faced with two or more choices, always ask yourself: what are we optimizing for?
The organization does bear some risk. This is true. However, if the organization is good at what it does, it will quickly identify under performing or unnecessary human resources and eliminate them from the payroll. Again, back to the netflix play book: it talks about how it is essential that the team identify any team members the team will not absolutely fight to retain and bid them goodbye as early as possible so the role can be held vacant for someone who is "worth" that position.
As you can see, the play book optimizes for what they hope is best for the organization. It is absolutely unapologetic in its mission (and that's a good thing!). However, you are not an organization. You are a squishy protein-based life form.
Why should you care about all this gobbledygook? Quite simply, you should care because you want to see where the priorities lie and the organization optimizes for and decide how likely it is that affects your priorities and what you want to optimize for. If the two don't match, I imagine you will likely have a bad time.
This exercise goes beyond getting a more beneficial paycheck or severance package. This exercise helps us learn the world around us and empathize with everyone including "corrupt" and "evil" people. We will learn how there is no such thing as "good" or "evil" but rather local and regional systems have different optimizations based on different priorities. I am not saying there is a grand design (although you could probably abstract one). I am rather only talking about local, regional, and global systems that have their own priorities and how their interactions effect change in the world we live in.
tl;dr When faced with two or more choices, always ask yourself: what are we optimizing for?