Volume 4 · The Ledger and the Loom · Essay 285
TM/NE Problem
TM/NE Problem names a difficulty you have already met, probably this week. Naming it is half the repair.
The problem persists because it is usually treated as someone else's. Once you accept that the naming of it includes you, solutions stop being exotic and start being obvious.
The idea is simple, and like most simple ideas it is easy to nod at and hard to use. The nod is free. The use costs attention, every day, in small change.
Ask the LIC agent at your door and the trader at his terminal — both will tell you the same thing in different clothes: money listens to discipline and laughs at moods.
Money is a good clerk and a terrible master; the arrangement is entirely up to us. You will meet this idea again this week, wearing different clothes. Now you will recognise it.