Play fair & work hard

Two of the building blocks of a resilient society.

And the opposite of the lazy shortcut.

The meanings of both clauses change over time…

Play fair:

• Everyone gets an opportunity to participate, from the very beginning
• Leave your campsite cleaner than you found it
• Take responsibility for the effects and side effects of your work
• Don’t seek monopoly power
• The long-term is the point
• Show your work and bring transparency to the market
• Don’t be a jerk
• Give others the benefit of the doubt
• Call your own fouls and don’t work the refs

Work hard:

• Do the reading
• Ask good questions
• Create value
• Change your mind before it’s fashionable
• Engage in emotional labor and seek out uncertainty
• Write the spec, don’t just follow it
• Play by the rules or work to change them

Social media and politics have done a great job of celebrating people who seek selfish shortcuts, simply because it’s entertaining or easy to believe.

Few of us do the hard work of manual labor these days. Instead, we have the chance to sign up to work hard on solving useful problems in a way that’s generative and resilient.

I hope it’s pretty clear that most of us would like to work in a culture like this. But if we don’t work at it, it disappears.

PS Play Hard & Work Fair helps us see the list with even more nuance…

May 26, 2024