Trading Candy

October 31st, 2024
kids
There are a lot of fun things about halloween, with costumes, neighbors, and sweets, but maybe the part I like best is the trading. Two kids sit down, each with a bucket full of candy. After a while they get back up, each with a better bucket than they started with. This feels like it shouldn't be possible: isn't there some sort of law of conservation of candy?

But of course it is possible: not everyone has the same preferences. We each start with some candy we aren't the ideal person to appreciate. Which also means the more different our preferences are, the greater the benefit of trading.

  • Don't just copy the preferences of the people around you: figure out what you actually like.

  • Fight culture that encourages mocking people for complementary taste.

  • In real life we don't swap around a fixed pool of candy, we can make more candy.

Comment via: facebook, lesswrong, mastodon

Recent posts on blogs I like:

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy

Look! A therapy technique people don't already know!

via Thing of Things May 14, 2025

Workshop House case study

Lauren Hoffman interviewed me about Workshop House and wrote this post about a community I’m working on building in DC.

via Home April 30, 2025

Impact, agency, and taste

understand + work backwards from the root goal • don’t rely too much on permission or encouragement • make success inevitable • find your angle • think real hard • reflect on your thinking

via benkuhn.net April 19, 2025

more     (via openring)