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===The [[commercial imperative]] of doubt=== | ===The [[commercial imperative]] of doubt=== | ||
At the heart of the commerce is ''trust'' and ''credit'': the expectation that one will ''[[be a good egg]]''. This is the beauty of a [[laissez-faire]] system: alone among polities it gets the alignment of interests right. It need not hope that actors are saints, or even that they will out of public spiritedness; indeed, it presumes they will not. The operating assumption of a market system is, | At the heart of the commerce is ''trust'' and ''credit'': the expectation that one will ''[[be a good egg]]''. This is the beauty of a [[laissez-faire]] system: alone among polities it gets the alignment of interests right. It need not hope that actors are saints, or even that they will out of public spiritedness; indeed, it presumes they will not. The operating assumption of a market system is, “everyone for oneself.” There are no allies. | ||
Yet, through the magic of the [[iterated prisoner’s dilemma]], we are nonetheless incentivised to do the right thing: the long-term payoff of repeated co-operation grossly outweighs the short-term bump of a single defection. We build not transactions, but relationships. As they develop, relationships grow: the dinks and scuffs we pick up along the way toughen us. If we manage them well, our relationships grow stronger. Relationships are [[anti-fragile]]. | Yet, through the magic of the [[iterated prisoner’s dilemma]], we are nonetheless incentivised to do the right thing: the long-term payoff of repeated co-operation grossly outweighs the short-term bump of a single defection. We build not transactions, but relationships. As they develop, relationships grow: the dinks and scuffs we pick up along the way toughen us. If we manage them well, our relationships grow stronger. Relationships are [[anti-fragile]]. | ||
Relationships develop as ''markets'' develop, as ''technology'' develops, as ''competitors'' develop and as ''threats'' develop. Markets, technology, competitors and threats interact with each other. The landscape shifts. This is [[complex]], [[non-linear]] and [[unpredictable]]. We do not know where we are going. We cannot be [[certainty|certain]] about our future. A contract which tries, with infinite detail, to anticipate the future — to codify it — will | Relationships develop as ''markets'' develop, as ''technology'' develops, as ''competitors'' develop and as ''threats'' develop. Markets, technology, competitors and threats interact with each other. The landscape shifts. This is [[complex]], [[non-linear]] and [[unpredictable]]. We do not know where we are going. We cannot be [[certainty|certain]] about our future. A contract which tries, with infinite detail, to anticipate the future — to codify it — will bind us to ways of working which will rapidly turn out to be impractical and ''blind'' us to ones which are resolutely better. | ||
An ode to certainty fossilises our commercial expectations on the day we form them. | |||
Worse yet, it encourages those in the relationship to consider matters settled, and not in need of discussion. They might even ''avoid'' talking to each other, for fear of prejudicing these pre-constructed legal protections.<ref>Often unjustifiably. See: [[estoppel by waiver]].</ref> They may even feel, without [[Legal]]’s sanction, they cannot. | Worse yet, it encourages those in the relationship to consider matters settled, and not in need of discussion. They might even ''avoid'' talking to each other, for fear of prejudicing these pre-constructed legal protections.<ref>Often unjustifiably. See: [[estoppel by waiver]].</ref> They may even feel, without [[Legal]]’s sanction, they cannot. | ||