Those Who Have Everything - Akira the Don

Finding out what you’re doing wrong is not a pleasant experience

And it means that you have to sacrifice part of yourself

Usually a burned out, stupid, bitter, corrupt

Arrogant, nasty, vengeful part of yourself

But nonetheless part that you like

I think that room for those incremental improvements

Exists within everyone’s grasp

And I think that it’s a humble thing to do to ask how you could improve

incrementally

Without interfering with anyone else

Like it’s your problem not their’s

But I think that the consequences of maintained incremental improvement are

anything but incremental

You get compound interest on incremental improvement

You know, there’s another rule in the New Testament called the Matthew

Principle, economists use it

The rule is:

To those who have everything more will be given and from those who have nothing

everything will be taken

To those who have everything more will be given and from those who have nothing

everything will be taken

It’s actually a description of the way the world works

You know that if you’ve ever played Monopoly

To those who have everything more will be given

And from those who have nothing everything will be taken

And there’s a reason for that that’s a deep reason

And it’s a very harsh rule because it means as you start to wonder off the path

The probability that you will wonder further off the path increases non-linearly

And that’s a terrible thing to know

As you walk closer to the edge the probability that you’ll fall off the cliff

increases

And that’s statistical justification for the concept of Hell

But as you improve the probability that each improvement will produce a further

improvement increases

And so perhaps the downside is the cataclysmic catastrophe that you can engage

upon

If you reproduce your moral failings but the upside is that each improvement

produces and increment in the probability of the next improvement

To those who have everything more will be given and from those who have nothing

everything will be taken

To those who have everything more will be given and from those who have nothing

everything will be taken

It’s actually a description of the way the world works

You know that if you’ve ever played Monopoly

To those who have everything more will be given

And from those who have nothing everything will be taken

If you’re a behavioural psychologist

And I am a behavioural psychologist

What you do is you help a person establish their aim

Then you break down what they’re trying to do into attainable units

The general consequence of that is that every time they manage an accomplishment

They get a little stronger in character

They get a little bit more confident in their ability

They get a little bit less racked with self disgust

They get a little bit more hopeful about the future

And they get more confident that they can make another change

And if you’re patient, and you have to be patient with yourself that way

It’s like you reward those incremental improvements and you don’t get all

cynical about them

And you think «okay, just imagine what would happen if you keep doing that

every week for 10 years»

And the answer to that is things would be so much better for you that you can’t

even imagine it

With that much improvement

Or maybe even with half that much improvement

To those who have everything more will be given and from those who have nothing

everything will be taken

To those who have everything more will be given and from those who have nothing

everything will be taken

It’s actually a description of the way the world works

You know that if you’ve ever played Monopoly

To those who have everything more will be given

And from those who have nothing everything will be taken

And so that’s a, that’s a very good way of progressing