Late last week, I had a conversation with a friend about the merits of tribalism, which of course is one of the main topics of this blog. The friend asked me a question I hadn't considered:
"How would a Tribe make you happy?"
I had to take a step back and actually ponder the answer. It's something I hadn't considered. Not because I don't think Tribes can bring happiness, but rather because happiness is a shitty life goal.
In a nutshell, we're not hard-wired to chase happiness. Evolution doesn't care if we're happy. Evolution cares that we, in order of importance, a) survive, and b) have sex. Those two biological directives create the foundation for every other motivation and emotion we experience. "Happiness" simply doesn't factor into the equation.
Don't get me wrong, happiness is a good thing. It feels good to feel happy. Our brains likely flood with dopamine, serotonin, maybe even some norepinephrine and endorphines. Makes us giddy. Makes us repeat whatever led to the happy feelings in the first place.
But "happiness" is not sustainable, mostly thanks to a cruel mistress known as hedonistic adaptation. Or sometimes know as the "hedonic treadmill." Whenever conditions align that allow us to feel happy, our body soon adjusts (thanks homeostasis!) to that level of happiness by returning us to our normal slightly melancholic, slightly empty, state of vague wanting. Which causes us to chase a slightly more extreme situation that produces our next existential high.
Yes, happiness is basically a drug.
And like any drug, chasing the high it creates is a fool's errand. Unfortunately, we live in a capitalist, individualistic world where material possessions and status symbols define our inherent value as human beings. We all have a drive to reach the top of the socioeconomic summit thanks to that aforementioned drive to screw. Since the agricultural revolution, the dude with the most "stuff" has been perceived as the highest value male, thus having access to the most desirable women. It's Ladder Theory 101. Or at least a big part of Ladder Theory.
So we're incredibly prone to marketing that "sells" us happiness... if only we buy whatever the hell we're being sold. When we purchase anything, we're flooded with "happiness" at our purchase. In many cases, we get to show off our purchase to others, induce a little envy, and maybe move our social status up a tenth of a percent. Which quickly wears off, usually in a matter of days. So we buy the next thing that'll deliver that high.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
This is basically the reason we need to rent 1.9 BILLION square feet of storage units - we run out of room for the stuff we bought to make us feel good by impressing other people we probably don't like all that much in the first place.
In summary, chasing happiness is a sucker's bet.
So What DO We Chase?
In complex terms, the Tribe is set up to satisfy every level of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs:
Each level of the pyramid contains both primary motivators (versus secondary motivators), all of which are also intrinsic motivators (versus extrinsic motivators.) This means they're infinitely sustainable (they're immune to hedonistic adaptation), infinitely scalable (we can use them to accomplish any goal, no matter how small or how big), and can be applied to individuals, a small group within the Tribe, or the Tribe as a whole. Any given behavior a member of the Tribe engages in within the context of the Tribe will likely fall on some level of the pyramid, thus fulfilling that particular need. When that need is met, we feel satisfied.
That's a pretty geeky explanation, so we have an even simpler explanation. Before I go on, you absolutely must read this article from the originator of this idea- Mark Manson:
https://qz.com/968031/happiness-is-a-problem-that-can-be-solved/
The goal of the Tribe is to create the kinds of problems the Tribe in general and the individual members in particular like to solve. We do this mostly by focusing on things that matter. The Tribe's money-making "division" is a school, which create problems like "how can we teach people the stuff they want to learn in the best way possible?" Who doesn't love solving problems that make our world a better place?
Our Tribe doesn't try to make the members happy. The Tribe fulfills our needs by creating the problems we love to solve. THAT is how the Tribe "makes us happy."
~Jason
Post Script: If you dig that mark Manson article above, you definitely need to check out his EXCELLENT book "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck." It's a continuation of this blog post he wrote years ago synthesized with the idea from that linked article in the post above. This book will be part of our Facebook Group's Book Club we'll be reading in the near future.
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