| Finding out what you’re doing wrong is not a pleasant experience
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| And it means that you have to sacrifice part of yourself
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| Usually a burned out, stupid, bitter, corrupt
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| Arrogant, nasty, vengeful part of yourself
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| But nonetheless part that you like
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| I think that room for those incremental improvements
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| Exists within everyone’s grasp
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| And I think that it’s a humble thing to do to ask how you could improve
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| incrementally
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| Without interfering with anyone else
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| Like it’s your problem not their’s
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| But I think that the consequences of maintained incremental improvement are
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| anything but incremental
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| You get compound interest on incremental improvement
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| You know, there’s another rule in the New Testament called the Matthew
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| Principle, economists use it
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| The rule is:
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| To those who have everything more will be given and from those who have nothing
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| everything will be taken
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| To those who have everything more will be given and from those who have nothing
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| everything will be taken
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| It’s actually a description of the way the world works
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| You know that if you’ve ever played Monopoly
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| To those who have everything more will be given
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| And from those who have nothing everything will be taken
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| And there’s a reason for that that’s a deep reason
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| And it’s a very harsh rule because it means as you start to wonder off the path
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| The probability that you will wonder further off the path increases non-linearly
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| And that’s a terrible thing to know
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| As you walk closer to the edge the probability that you’ll fall off the cliff
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| increases
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| And that’s statistical justification for the concept of Hell
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| But as you improve the probability that each improvement will produce a further
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| improvement increases
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| And so perhaps the downside is the cataclysmic catastrophe that you can engage
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| upon
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| If you reproduce your moral failings but the upside is that each improvement
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| 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
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| If you’re a behavioural psychologist
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| And I am a behavioural psychologist
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| What you do is you help a person establish their aim
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| Then you break down what they’re trying to do into attainable units
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| The general consequence of that is that every time they manage an accomplishment
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| They get a little stronger in character
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| They get a little bit more confident in their ability
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| They get a little bit less racked with self disgust
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| They get a little bit more hopeful about the future
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| And they get more confident that they can make another change
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| And if you’re patient, and you have to be patient with yourself that way
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| It’s like you reward those incremental improvements and you don’t get all
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| cynical about them
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| And you think «okay, just imagine what would happen if you keep doing that
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| every week for 10 years»
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| And the answer to that is things would be so much better for you that you can’t
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| even imagine it
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| With that much improvement
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| 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
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| And so that’s a, that’s a very good way of progressing |