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Monday through Thursday, we explore ideas from authors, thought leaders, and exemplary organizations. On Friday, I share something about myself or what we are working on at PCI.
Searching for a bit of wisdom as we push to end 2024 on a strong note and start 2025 with a bang.
How does everything in the world work?
There is a simple, two-word answer to this question, says Peter D. Kaufman, CEO of Glenair, Inc., but best-known for compiling Poor Charlie’s Almanack, the Wit and Wisdom of Charlie Munger.
Ready? To answer this question, Peter looks to three sources:
(1) 13.7 billion years of the inorganic universe, i.e. anything that is not living.
(2) 3.5 billion years of the biology on Earth
(3) 20,000 years of recorded history.
Let’s start with source #1 and Newton’s Third Law of Motion: “For every action there will always be an equal and opposite reaction.'”
Let’s say we put a bottle of water on a table. Newton’s Third Law of Motion dictates if the bottle pushes down on the table with “force x,” the table pushes back with equal “force x.” If we push down twice as hard on the bottle, the table pushes back twice as hard.
For how long has that been true?
13.7 billion years.
Peter suggests there is a word to describe this phenomenon.
Reciprocation.
“But it’s not mere reciprocation,” says Peter. “It’s perfectly mirrored reciprocation. The harder I push, the harder it pushes back. That’s how the world works. It’s mirrored reciprocation. Everything in the inorganic universe works that way.”
2: What about source #2 involving all living things?
Mark Twain once said, “If you hold a cat by the tail you learn things you cannot learn any other way.”
In other words, the cat is “going to try and scratch me with its sharp claws,” Peter states.
Why?
“It doesn’t find being picked up by its tail very agreeable, does it?” says Peter. “Now, what if I start swinging this cat around by its tail—what does the cat do now? Now it’s trying to scratch my eyes out. The cat says, “You escalated on me, pal; I’m going to escalate back on you.”
But what if instead of treating the cat disagreeably, we do something agreeable instead?
If “we come over and we gently pick it up by its tummy and we put it in the crook of our elbow and we gently stroke it. Does the cat try and scratch us? What does it do?” asks Peter.
“It licks our hands. And as long as I sit here and stroke it, it’s going to continue to try and lick my hand,” states Peter. The cat says, “I like this. This is agreeable. You’re a good guy. Keep it up, man!”
Which sounds a lot like… “mirrored reciprocation.”
3: What do we think we’ll find with source #3, our 20,000 years of human history? This bucket is the most relevant of all. It’s our story. It’s who we are.
“Every interaction we have with another human being is merely mirrored reciprocation,” Peter observes.
“Your entire life. It’s exactly the same thing, isn’t it?”
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Refection: Think back on several recent interchanges at work or home. What role did mirrored reciprocity play?
Action: Deliberately experiment with this principle and reflect on the learnings.
[H/T: Farnam Street 4/12/21 weekly newsletter. And here is a link to the audio recording of Peter’s talk.]
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