Hey Meltem! I must honestly say that I really enjoyed this piece. The words of Henry Ford kept resonating in my mind while I was reading it: "It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning."
My favorite part, and the crucial part IMHO was "Understanding the Banking Business Model" because people simply do not understand what actually happens when they make a deposit at a bank! Banks are ridiculously incentivized to make money by taking increasingly greater risks while selling the illusion of safety. A "safety" they achieve only by taking so much of the people's wealth hostage that they become "too big to fail". That bit about the FDIC was truly comical and sad, especially if you know the historic circumstances that led to the creation of the FDIC.
And yes, unfortunately facts don't change people's minds, especially when they've been systematically conditioned all their lives to believe a comforting lie. However I have a lot of hope, because I believe that with enough architects working on these problems, as you said in your post "Unintended Architecture", we can build systems that transition people from one world to the next, and I'll even take it further: we can build systems that transition people from one belief system to the next.
I just discovered your publication and I really appreciate the serious thought and effort you put in these pieces. Thank you so much for sharing your brilliance. Until your next post, stay awesome and take care!
thanks, jesse, for that thoughtful response and for being a reader. it's really difficult for every person to be an expert in all things, so i've been trying to share some of what i know and understand in a more narrative-driven way to help people get up to speed. i feel like one of the great failings of modern education is that we don't teach people how systems work and how incentives shape the way systems evolve. the Henry Ford quote is such a good one! but also, chuckle, because as you know Ford is a demi-god in Huxley's "A Brave New World" and was himself the creator of a system which created perverse incentives and perpetuated modern society's obsession with industrial efficiency at any cost to society.
This was a great primer. It helped me to understand modern-day banking motivations. I'm curious to read more about your projections for AUM/AUC in the next post.
Hey Meltem! I must honestly say that I really enjoyed this piece. The words of Henry Ford kept resonating in my mind while I was reading it: "It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning."
My favorite part, and the crucial part IMHO was "Understanding the Banking Business Model" because people simply do not understand what actually happens when they make a deposit at a bank! Banks are ridiculously incentivized to make money by taking increasingly greater risks while selling the illusion of safety. A "safety" they achieve only by taking so much of the people's wealth hostage that they become "too big to fail". That bit about the FDIC was truly comical and sad, especially if you know the historic circumstances that led to the creation of the FDIC.
And yes, unfortunately facts don't change people's minds, especially when they've been systematically conditioned all their lives to believe a comforting lie. However I have a lot of hope, because I believe that with enough architects working on these problems, as you said in your post "Unintended Architecture", we can build systems that transition people from one world to the next, and I'll even take it further: we can build systems that transition people from one belief system to the next.
I just discovered your publication and I really appreciate the serious thought and effort you put in these pieces. Thank you so much for sharing your brilliance. Until your next post, stay awesome and take care!
thanks, jesse, for that thoughtful response and for being a reader. it's really difficult for every person to be an expert in all things, so i've been trying to share some of what i know and understand in a more narrative-driven way to help people get up to speed. i feel like one of the great failings of modern education is that we don't teach people how systems work and how incentives shape the way systems evolve. the Henry Ford quote is such a good one! but also, chuckle, because as you know Ford is a demi-god in Huxley's "A Brave New World" and was himself the creator of a system which created perverse incentives and perpetuated modern society's obsession with industrial efficiency at any cost to society.
This was a great primer. It helped me to understand modern-day banking motivations. I'm curious to read more about your projections for AUM/AUC in the next post.
thanks, Eric!