I’ve been unpacking a lot of fascinating ideas. Gathered from a variety of sources online, in class, etc. I want to highlight a couple that might be universally true.
1. There are things that have concentrated costs and diffuse benefits.
2. Costs are not discrete nor instantaneously imposed. Benefits likewise are not discrete nor instantaneously gained.
3. Satisfying everyone simultaneously is impossible. Human desires grows in conjunction with human capabilities and always at least a step ahead. And desires can and do self contradict.
4. People are diverse, with varying and ever changing needs, wants, and preferences for other people. Thus it is self referential and can be internally self contradictory, on an individual and societal level, and thus the end result is unpredictable, possibly even self defeating.(Actually it is even more broad than that, formal logic suggests that even a single valid contradiction, in any system anywhere, can imply anything at all.)
5. Judgements of people, informal and formal, will continue to occur regardless of what anyone says.
6. Judging people by appearances and words is less effective than through their character and actions. Though potentially has some effectiveness above zero.
7. Preferences for long term thinking and short term thinking vary among any population.
8. Any characteristic at all varies among a sufficiently large population.
9. The balance between long term and short term views directly influence an individual‘s or organization‘s perception of reality.
10. Perceptions of reality effect the components required to do so. This is where the annoying philosophy happens. Godel’s Incompleteness theorems, etc.
11. People base everything, personality, worldview, actions, decisions, etc. on a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic factors.
12. As perception is required for extrinsic factors, everything effects everything both subjectively and objectively. (technically gravity has unlimited range so thats true in the most literal sense.)
Bonus:
13. Being persistently positive is a force multiplier.
Edited from original post on Facebook March of 2019
M. Y. Z. 