Carbon Footprints

Yesterday I went to pick up the diamond ring I bought for my wife, to commemorate the birth of our daughter. It is not the one picture here, this is one that was in the display while I was waiting for them to bring the other - which is a thin band lined with diamonds and made from platinum, to match the engagement and wedding rings.

When the attendant came, she opened the little box for me to check it and after I approved, showed me the card that has all the details on it, which is mostly for insurance purposes, put them all in a bag, handed it over and wished me a good day.

I should probably pay for it.

When I ordered I put a 50% deposit down, with the rest to come when picking it up, but it seems that she didn't know this and was going to let me out the door without checking if it had been paid for. When I said that I should pay, she was pretty thankful that I mentioned it, and then I joked that I don't mind not paying if she prefers.

It wasn't cheap.

But, what I was wondering is what would have happened if I had walked out. I assume that they would have realized the mistake and called, then I would have had to explain that I had "forgotten" that I hadn't paid and then have to go back in and pay, as if I was in the wrong. That would suck.

Finns are pretty trustworthy people for the most part and they pride themselves on it, but what I have noticed is that when there are even small amounts of money on the table, they don't mind doing what they can to make it theirs.

For example, an ex used to work in a corner store and the amount of people who would try and steal small-cost items was incredibly high. When she first started, she didn't notice it, but I would pick her up from her late shifts and sit there early reading and having a coffee. As people would come in, I would motion to which would steal and almost without fail, I was right. Perhaps it is because no one is watching for Finns to steal, but they aren't very good at hiding it and due to my own retail past in Australia, I had practice looking out for the signs.

I was talking with a friend last night about this, after he brought it up from the perspective of sales, where he works. He was saying that even for small amounts, sales people were willing to "steal" from others if they could - and these people were otherwise good people.

I think it isn't the money or the value of it, but I think Finns have a culture of highly valuing "getting something for free" to the point that they will break laws at times to get it or, jeopardize their personal relationships to get their high. I think it is a dopamine kick, a gamified experience of a kleptomaniac that kicks in and compels them to chase the next high.

It isn't only the Finns though and I think this behavior is pervasive all through society across the globe, but I wonder if it is getting worse, now that we are less connected to each other personally. Are we more likely to think about what we can get out of something, rather than what us getting it out is going to cost us. To me at least, it feels that the more we get disconnected from a stable community, the more selfish and greedy we become and I think it might be because there is less accountability and consistent responsibility - we don't have to save face with a community, because we are members of many and often our faces are insulated digitally, so we feel less exposed to repercussions.

This is probably what drives so much of the negative interaction online too, where people are looking to "score" against others by any means they can, without caring at what cost. It probably also makes people more blind to being scammed also, where the need to satisfy personal desires makes people less likely to identify risk factors - like all that scam spam on discord.

Even if I walked out of that store and never got chased for the money, I would know and that wouldn't make the ring sweeter, it would instead it would ruin its history for me. Rather than be a memory of my daughter's birth, it would carry shame every time I saw it, or my wife showed someone. No matter how bright the diamonds shine or clean the platinum, it would forever be tarnished dulled.

It is funny though, because I know people who would likely feel the opposite. That getting one over on the jeweler would make the ring worth more, because they got away with it. I understand the sentiment to some extent, especially if it is in regards to some authority, but when it comes to a small, private and local company or a friend - is there no shame?

It takes all types to make this world though and because of the variations, there are a lot of opportunities that arise. While homogeneity might be easier, it leads to low innovation, because there is no risk. Risk makes us develop to mitigate those risks and as a result, we end up building more robustly and systems that have backup systems. It is one of the reasons that blockchain technologies have arrived and why they are improving and must improve - because the more value they hold, the more they are going to come under attack, as we have seen recently.

People see the hacks as a failure, but what they end up instigating, is a strengthening. While an individual chain can fail, the decentralized system becomes stronger, making it antifragile - the more pressure that is applied, the stronger it becomes. Black swan events will happen, but due to the diversity of the system, none of them are going to be cataclysmic and those that die, will provide knowledge for the improvement of the survivors. At some point, it is diverse enough and strong enough across so many points, that it is near unassailable.

Diamonds are made under pressure.
Not all carbon becomes a diamond.

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]