1. Governance

The British Raj tried to curb the cobra population in India by putting a bounty on cobras. Although initially successful, people eventually started to farm cobras for the payment. We act based on intentions, but have difficulty accountting for the secondary, or god forbid, tertiary effects of our actions. The above story is a classic example given to explain perverse incentives.

In the current housing climate, recent graduates argue for student loan forgiveness by stating that with the additional funds, they could afford a home; what will happen to house prices if every students vying for housing get an influx of cash? I have sympathy for the government on the task at hand. I’ve heard too many of my peers with an opinion on “what the government should do”, with no concern for the unintended consequences.

2. Work

When I was young, I didn’t understand how any task was hard accomplish. At the time, my only real experience was with academics, and I would simply take the time to learn the material to my satisfaction, and as a result receive good grades. In my undergraduate studies, there were more occasions when I couldn’t learn a topic to my satisfaction, compromising to juggle competiting interests, such as getting sleep, and playing video games. On infrequent occasions that I would encounter hard exams, assignments, and get bad grades, I’d just chalk it up to “I didn’t spend enough time on it”, and move on.

It wasn’t until I was employed as a research engineer in a subject I was completely out of depth in that I realized the crux of the problem: there simply is not enough time. In grade school, the scope of the problems were such that even if there were multiple directions to pursue to solve a question, with little determination it’s easily feasible to attempt every path. At work, you are given a finite amount of resources, to pursue a terrifyingly few number of directions, with the expectation to produce results.

3. Love

A divorce attorney asked his client when she realized that the marriage was over; her reply was “when he stopped buying me granola”. Her ex-husband would notice when her favourite granola was running low, and replace it unceremoniously. It showed that he was thinking about her, and consequently gave her a sense of being loved.

The idea that your aspirations are met through consistent effort is not a strange concept; you bulk up by showing up to the gym regularly, you write better jokes by writing a joke every day. However, the story illustrates its broader pertinence to anything worth a care, such as love. There is no one-time silver bullet, it’s the little things you do day in, and day out.