It Depends
Generally speaking our behaviors (both actual and ideal), morals or personalities are very sensitive to the intricate contexts of life. It took me a while to realize that my behaviors and ideals in a given dimension are sensitive to whether I’m under the impression of dealing with an individual – ‘micro’ – or with an entity, an abstract organization or society as a whole – ‘macro’.
The following are few tendencies of mine I believe to have observed. In these dimensions, the behavior and morals I live and expect depend a lot on micro vs. macro:
| Micro | Macro |
|---|---|
| Loyalty | Opportunism |
| Principles | Pragmatism |
| Trust | Control |
| Offering | Requesting |
| Strongly prefer a posteriori information 1 | Use a priori information |
It follows that situations in which it’s not clear as to whether one is dealing with micro or macro are really hard to navigate. I am loyal to, would never steal from, and by default trust the quality of work from the charming next door coffee shop. I would ditch a coffee chain for the next best alternative, potentially consider taking advantage of and expect the worst from it. I figure I would kernel panic if the next door coffee shop finds itself in the process of scaling up and I no longer know what regime to follow.
What’s considered before or after the observation of evidence clearly relies on an arbitrary definition. What I’m trying to get at is that I would like to learn about people when dealing with people, give them a chance; not punish or reward them for summary statistics which other individuals with common a priori properties have shaped. ↩︎