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✿ ZACH HARRIS ✿ pfp
✿ ZACH HARRIS ✿
@zachharris.eth
Repost from the author of Mastering Uncertainty, Matt Watkinson: s/o https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-watkinson/ 1/ Seventy-five years ago the sociologist David Reisman made a profound observation about society. He explained that there are three major influences on our decision-making: Tradition directed: we do it because we’ve always done it. Inner directed: we do it because it’s concordant with our character. Other directed: we do it because everyone else is doing it. He postulated that the rise of consumerism would alter the balance away from tradition and inner directed behaviors and make us increasingly other directed.
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✿ ZACH HARRIS ✿ pfp
✿ ZACH HARRIS ✿
@zachharris.eth
2/ In other words, we would increasingly make our decisions based on fitting in, FOMO, and the trends or consensus of the day, rather than any sort of cogent or critical analysis, a sense of our own character, or the cultivation of our own tastes or perspectives. Obviously he was correct, and I would argue that the internet and social media accelerated the trend. But what he didn’t write about, because it wasn’t part of the brief perhaps, is how other-directeness would come to dominate business decision-making. Looking back on my last twenty years in the work place, it is self-evident that the driver of most commercial decision-making is not data, it is not analysis, it is not strategy, it is not critical thought, it is not business theory, it is not academia, it is not visionary leadership. It is far simpler than that. Most people just look around and do whatever everyone else is doing.
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Warpmaster General
@my
Id argue the same consumer infrastructure that enables influencers and “likes” also lets individuals assemble bespoke identities, resurrect forgotten traditions, and assert personal values through what they buy. In that sense, contemporary consumerism is at least as inner‑ and tradition‑directed as it is “other‑directed.”
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