Understanding Value
Last updated
Last updated
This section is incomplete and work in progress. Please proceed with caution.
Status games are multiplayer, zero-sum, hierarchical, judged socially. Get grades, applause, titles now - emptiness later. Wealth games are single player, positive-sum, internal, judged by nature/markets. - source of thought
Wealth is ownership of assets that others seek and hence, 'value'. Competence, State of mind, and Energy are self-accessible and universally available assets. Money is only a denomination (of wealth) and useless by itself.
Its purpose comes from what it can get done. That is, transform itself into.
Its existence comes from value creation.
Money is a consequence. Value is the appropriate target.
The simple way to increase value is to be useful.
Success requires coordinated competence across multiple stakeholders, translated into output.
Value is created by positively impacting output.
There are 3 ways to increase output:
Free up (higher value) throughput Take responsibility of a part of the system that is currently the responsibility of an L3+ individual. Thus, freeing their mind and affording the system access to their additional throughput. Responsibility is earned through demonstrated competence of the same outcome. This is popular at L1 and L2 and unlocks linear gains.
Increase throughput Transform the system (not individuals) into a higher throughput state using (system and incentive) design. Efficacy of a coordination network is a perpetual problem. Helpful watch: Mechanism Design 101 | Sam Williams This is popular at L3 and unlocks quadratic gains.
Discover throughput Be able to see, new pots of gold and their execution into output. This is popular at L4 and unlocks exponential gains.
Attributing specific value to individual output in any multi-stakeholder system where 1+1=11, is a non-trivial problem. Yet, inconsequential. The real problem is individuals lacking visibility of how (and which of) their actions translate into output. And hence, are valuable.
Ascend Framework is the model we use for this problem. With an easy mapping of business output to individual competence benchmarks, denominated in actual $ value. The system has been designed to be simple enough that:
Anyone at any time is able to self-measure the value of their current output.
Exactly know the distance to their next ascend.
Ascend occurs in run-time.
Ascend level-based outputs exist to help self-measure and hence, afford agency. Nothing more. Do not confuse a goal with strategy.
Building relevant competence may be a strategy.
In a world filled with violence and its consequent victimhood, accruing value without taking from others (including the system) is a non-obvious idea.
It will take non-trivial effort to truly see. Do consider Understanding Truth and Limits of Engagement sections again.