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Kindness by Design
Sometimes I find myself making good headway through a book, only to be suddenly stopped in my tracks by a particular insight that suggests an entirely new way of thinking about a problem.
And then on certain inspired occasions I find my thoughts ricocheting from one such idea to another, something like one of those steel balls bouncing around in a pinball machine, darting back and forth to ever greater heights.
I came across one such passage recently in Kate Raworth’s excellent 2017 book, Doughnut Economics: 7 Ways to Think Like a 21st Century Economist. There it was, staring up at me from page 180:
Economics, it turns out, is not a matter of discovering laws: it is essentially a question of design.
What a novel, seemingly radical, notion! And yet, once considered, it makes perfect sense. We know that the many strange and complex ways in which we humans create value for ourselves and others didn’t just spring up one day; they weren’t discovered, full-blown, created according to some natural laws: no, they’ve been conceived and fashioned by humans in accordance with our sundry motivations, values and notions.
And then another quote came to mind, this one from Steve Jobs:
When you grow up you tend to get told that the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life…
