Wired for success.

We are happy when other people like us. We are happy when other people like a thing we made. So we try to make things that other people will like. It makes us happy.

I assume there is some grand evolutionary reason for this behavior. But it doesn’t seem very productive in terms of civilization. Maybe civilization is a weak trait that evolution will remove in the long run. In the fight between nature and culture, nature always wins. At the expense of life itself, if need be. It’s for the best, I’m sure.

Maybe being wired for success is how nature tries to slow us down. The rapid evolution of civilization as a result of many people stubbornly going against the grain has lead to a very perilous situation. We are endangering the entire planet. If we would stop our revolutions and just do things that pleased other people, we would evolve a lot more slowly. And perhaps not endanger our environment so much.

Whether this is a good idea at this very moment is another matter. Maybe we should first do some more rapid thinking, before we can slow down in a world that isn’t threatening to wipe us all out.