If you buy an Ikea table, you’ll need 8 bolts to put it together. 7 is not enough.
This is a functional sort of ‘enough.’ It can be critical to our survival. “I have enough medication to last through this illness.” “We have enough food to feed our family.”
But this isn’t the stress that we often feel in social or financial settings. That’s the bottomless, n+1 habit of never having enough.
Our needs got hijacked and turned into endless wants. Marketers and adjudicators of cultural standing turned ‘enough’ from a functional requirement to a never-ending tactic.
The not-enough of the driven hedge fund bro in the Hamptons, or the not-enough of the person hoarding resources, or the not-enough of the generous but nervous host who finds a sort of fuel in worrying about being hospitable. The not-enough chronicled in magazines and social media accounts. It’s the not-enough of someone counting online metrics, and the not-enough of the athlete who doesn’t simply want to win, they want to break a record.
This is a choice, and it is simply about the story we tell ourselves. There’s no absolute measure, no certain number of nuts and bolts needed in the optional search for solace and status.
On the other hand, when we find the insight to choose what our enough is, the people around us often respond warmly and in kind.
Insufficiency isn’t a tool or an advantage. It’s a hack, a distraction and a place to hide. This is a choice, a simple one, one we can remake each day.
Perhaps this has happened to you: You’re at the reference desk of the library, with the answer to any question available–and you can’t think of anything to ask.
And there’s the vegetable blindness that occurs at a really good farmer’s market. After a few stalls, it’s hard to imagine what to cook.
Shortly after high-speed internet arrived, this mind-blanking set in for many people… you could look up anything on Wikipedia, listen to any song, read any recipe–and in that moment, our curiosity seemed to fade.
And of course, with Claude and other AI tools here, it’s now a worldwide epidemic. We can find information, get tutored, create code, build illustrations, narrate projects… a team of free interns, ready to give it a go.
We have the keys to the car, and it’s got a full charge… where are we going to go now?
On poison and high voltage wires, the label clearly informs us that this can kill us, right away. For obvious reasons, these are important labels, and generally quite effective.
On cigarettes, it’s clear that if you smoke long enough, you’re going to die, and probably not pleasantly. The warning labels haven’t been nearly as effective as taxes in curbing smoking, but they made the issue clear.
New York State just passed a law requiring labels on social media. Many of the tactics of online networks make people, especially children, unhappy, perhaps for the long term.
Perhaps by highlighting the addictive, manipulative features that cause the most harm, informed consent (or avoidance) will follow.
We probably want to avoid signs like this:
But I’m wondering if a simple, universal symbol could get the job done:
At some point, anything we buy feels like a bargain. Something needs to be worth more than it costs or we wouldn’t buy it.
So, what makes what you offer a bargain?
Is it that you’ve lowered the price, or have you increased the value?
The Method:
Everyone who disagrees with you is right to do so–based on who they are and what they see
Attention is priceless and trust is worth even more
Marketing is the generous act of helping someone solve a problem
Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers
Permission is the privilege of delivering anticipated, personal, and relevant messages
The best time to do promotion is before you need it
Price is a story
You can’t be seen until you learn to see
“People like us do things like this” is the definition of culture
There are only a few widespread human needs
Stories are the original human technology
Resilient strategies work better when we repeat our tactics more often
Positioning is a generous act
Be missed when you’re not here
Make something worth talking about
Do work that matters for people who care
–repeat–
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