Why Did You Get Out of Bed This Morning?

What motivates you?

Money? Family? Greed? Kindness? Fear? Love?

As individuals, we have reasons for doing things - we have incentives. Systems can also have incentives - underlying drivers that push them in a certain direction.

A forest wants to grow, so the plants and animals interact in lots of ways … A squirrel takes an acorn for food - and some of those buried acorns turn into saplings … The trees share resources with each other through their underground connections … Even a fire can help the forest - some seed pods only open when touched by the heat of a flame …

The economy also wants to grow - but this is a different sort of growth … we turn living trees into paper, and ancient trees into plastic toys …

[This is not to make a judgement: I use plenty of paper, and own plenty of plastic ‘toys’].

Understanding our current system is a critical aspect of thinking about how we might do things differently - how we might change things. From money and debt, to first mover advantage and multi-polar traps, the incentives underpinning our current system matter - they are driving us in a certain direction.