I loved Liars Poker, by Michael Lewis - he discussed many of the same themes in that book, especially the one I remember is the understanding in the I-Banking industry that no matter what happens, they will get bailed out. He writes about the period in time when they created ‘mortgage bonds’ - which eventually underpinned the sub-prime collapse. It was fascinating to watch the things he wrote about all those years ago come true, including the consistent bailing out of the banks for the US Government.

But I digress.

I like how you discuss the role that incentives play in figuring out if it’s a mystery or puzzle. Do you mean that, for people who believed they were onto a ‘winner’ they were more likely to just trust their gut, rather than those who were a bit more hesitant and thus more likely to trust their heads?

What separated them and the I-Banking industry before everyone was “IN” on the situation one could allude was mystery vs puzzle thinking.

To the industry the prime mortgage bond boom was a mystery and their intuition told them they were going to keep making shit tons of money so the underlying assumptions were not questioned.

The investor’s motivations differed from stopping injustice to outright curiosity. To them the market was a puzzle that required placing intuition and emotions aside and analyzing information.

What was clear is that incentives dictated the path of mystery or puzzle.

So next time we come up against a barrier or a gift with our personal projects. Maybe questioning the incentives and how we are motivated by them will address how to move forward?

Thanks for your comment, I agree with all of it - but only want to highlight your second point.

I agree, there are a bundle of amazing people out there who are just being, not necessarily doing. Finding these people can be even harder, because you often won’t see them and they often won’t have a specific project to talk about.

I think the key is, as @ross was discussing above, that this is an ongoing process and once you find someone *doing* and you like that, you can then follow them regardless of what is going on presently. But I agree, that you may miss out on the magic of people being, if you focus too much on finding the doing.

Thanks for the comment

My #twocents provoked by each point -

1) An independent entity ( a person) is always part of an interdependence entity ( community). The two work together, flow energy backwards and forth.

2) Black Hat -> Are amazing people always just doing “projects”? The most amazing person could be doing nothing. Sort of thinking about “doing” vs “being”. If you are looking for magic in just people’s doing, do you miss out on people magic “being”?

3) I love this - “Trust that you’re doing good stuff and trust that these people will find you.”

A mentality of opportunity and people abundance. Less about scarcity.
When you are doing good within yourself, the people will gravitate around me. Light attracts light. Good attracts Good. Awesome attracts awesome. The natural flow of the Tao.

Eddie

The collective intention was open for not already knowing the next steps, and that is where magic appears.

@princess - I love that you also read Jans blog, it’s excellnt isn’t it. Jan is not too bad herself

Your blog is great too Steve

Keep smiling Steve