Thursday, December 09, 2010
You are an individual only at annual review time...
Ever notice that the only time you are ever thought about as an individual is at annual review time...
Two boxers fight in a ring. One falls to his knees. The other triumphs. Do you care which is which? Well, it's unlikely you'd pay good money to watch just one boxer beat himself unconscious. So it takes two.
We can model a boxer in a computer and make the two fighters absolutely identical. Let the starting conditions of the fight - the tiny irregularities in the mat, the difference in the noises from the crowd, the breeze blowing across one fighter's back - determine the outcome. The proverbial butterfly flapping its wing causing a tsunami becomes a possibility.
In real life, we are all like these boxers. A thought doesn't care whether it is thought by you or by me. As you read this, your understanding is no different from mine as I write it. We are just boxers, one up, one down. The feeling that you or I am somehow unique, different from others is just an illusion.
You are in the matrix, the bigger question is whether you take the red or the blue pill? The Architect said that the question you think is the most important is probably the least relevant. As you spend time figuring out your unique value proposition, others are spending time figuring out how to destroy it and make you conform to their model of normalcy.
Enterprises prefer to have a sense of continuity over a sense of urgency and innovation. They don't necessarily want to handle the illusion of individuality as that is hard work, but rather hope to leave innovation in the hands of butterflies flapping their wings.
At annual review time, remember this truth and you will be at peace with yourself...
| | View blog reactionsTwo boxers fight in a ring. One falls to his knees. The other triumphs. Do you care which is which? Well, it's unlikely you'd pay good money to watch just one boxer beat himself unconscious. So it takes two.
We can model a boxer in a computer and make the two fighters absolutely identical. Let the starting conditions of the fight - the tiny irregularities in the mat, the difference in the noises from the crowd, the breeze blowing across one fighter's back - determine the outcome. The proverbial butterfly flapping its wing causing a tsunami becomes a possibility.
In real life, we are all like these boxers. A thought doesn't care whether it is thought by you or by me. As you read this, your understanding is no different from mine as I write it. We are just boxers, one up, one down. The feeling that you or I am somehow unique, different from others is just an illusion.
You are in the matrix, the bigger question is whether you take the red or the blue pill? The Architect said that the question you think is the most important is probably the least relevant. As you spend time figuring out your unique value proposition, others are spending time figuring out how to destroy it and make you conform to their model of normalcy.
Enterprises prefer to have a sense of continuity over a sense of urgency and innovation. They don't necessarily want to handle the illusion of individuality as that is hard work, but rather hope to leave innovation in the hands of butterflies flapping their wings.
At annual review time, remember this truth and you will be at peace with yourself...
