There are two ways to treat the people you know. A gardener plants things and comes back to a bigger garden every year. A miner digs out whatever is valuable, and one day the mine is empty.
When you create value, you help someone, they end up better off, and usually so do you. Two people walk away with more than they had. When you exploit someone, you get something, but only because they lost it. And something else gets lost too: their trust in you.
2 + 2 = 4 → 3 + 4 = 7
You taught a friend how to edit videos. They got a new skill. You got better at it by explaining it, and now they're the person who'll help you next time.
2 + 2 = 4 → 4 + 0 = 4, minus trust
You copied a friend's homework and turned it in. You got the grade. They got nothing, and the next time you ask, they'll say they're busy.
Both players start with the same 8 friends. Each week the gardener helps one friend, always the one they've helped least lately. The miner asks for a favor from whoever trusts them most. Thicker lines mean more trust. Press play.
First, guess. After 40 weeks, who has received more?
Pick one, then press play. You'll see if you were right at week 40.
Week 0. Eight friends, all of them on decent terms with you.
Week 0. Same eight friends. Same decent terms.
Keys: Space play or pause · ← → one week
This is the part most people miss. Taking really does pay faster at first. That's why people do it. But the miner's line goes flat, because nobody is left to take from. The gardener's line bends upward, because helped friends help back and introduce new people.
Every time you help someone, you make a deposit. Every favor you ask is a withdrawal. Asking is fine. Asking from an empty account isn't.
When the miner takes from one friend, that friend's friends hear about it. Your reputation reaches people before you do. Watch the red ripples spread in the simulation.
A friend who trusts you will introduce you to people you'd never meet otherwise. Those new people are worth more over time than any single favor.
Pick an answer for each one before you read why. Some of these are trickier than they look.
To my son: almost every good thing that has happened in my career came from someone I'd helped years earlier, or someone they introduced me to. I didn't plan most of it. I just tried to be useful to people, and it came back in ways I couldn't have predicted.
You'll meet people who are miners. Some of them will look like they're winning for a while. Look at the chart again and be patient.
— Dad