SUSTAINING THE UNSUSTAINABLE

Over the last years I have often wondered, why so much of our human-made sciences are so overly complex and non-intuitive. Since a young child my primary instinct has always been to see the underlying foundation, thinking process, incentive and framework on any topic, assuming that from thereon it would be possible to logically and analytically deduct the way things should grow further. Instead, while going to university and studying several sciences, I have found this way of reasoning to be quite insignificant. Common sense is left somewhere behind and a 100% left-brain approach is required: Creativity be damned. Comply and you will succeed.

On the other hand, when it comes to nature and nature’s laws, quite often they can be expressed with a simple equation, like E=MC². Also, when it comes to business, a simple idea can turn into a monster opportunity with a basic amount of skills, creativity, courage and asymmetrical thinking.

In today’s society, it seems to me that honesty, accountability, transparency and simplicity have all been sidestepped in the name of vested interests. The fear or recessions and accountability have caused central banks around the world to hide crucial information, cherry-pick their speeches, put out misinformation and all kind of guerrilla tactics in the hope that no one notices what is truly going on behind the scenes. Simply flooding the world in liquidity and freshly printed money will surely make the problem go way, if we just wait enough time: Extend and pretend. However, assuming that the market and the general population are stupid in general is a slippery slope.

If we look at successful businessman, we will see that most if not all of them have one common trait: Brutal honesty. If we have accurate information, we will find a way to take the right decisions, even if they will cause us mental, physical and/or financial pain. This holds true both for decisions in networks of people, as much as it does in our personal life. Do you run away from something, or do you run towards something? Approaching our problems is quite often the quickest and easiest way to cope with them and it is such a pity that we are not taught success principals in school. Without going into this further, authors such as Robert Kiyosaki consider this part of the “Conspiracy of the Rich”.

Economic decisions are not the sole place where honesty is efficient. If we look deeply into politics today, we again see that honesty and simplicity are far from the norm. Just this week, US Senator Jeff Sessions found that President Obama’s already enacted Health Law has $17 Trillion in unfunded liabilities. Talking about political promises and vested interests. Today’s politics are all about short-term decisions and satisfying the consuming public.

All that is needed is to keep the general public watching TV and voting for the guy with the best suit, biggest smile and unsustainable promises.

But it has been so wisely said that “All good things come to an end” and history surely rhymes. History repeats because human nature never changes. Wherever we are now, we have been there before and “there is nothing new under the sun”. Empires rise and fall and today it is no different – it is just a matter of time before we wake up from our collective dream.