Injunctive Social Norms

Some ideas arrive wearing uniforms. Injunctive Social Norms arrives in a kurta — plain, comfortable, and ready for work.

It is worth keeping in your pocket not because it is always right, but because it is always available. A tool you carry beats a perfect tool you left at home.

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.

Every colony has a notice board and a gossip channel. The notice board informs; the channel decides. Wise residents read the first and audit the second.

Society is a long conversation; the only question is whether you are listening or merely waiting to speak. Carry it lightly. Ideas, like umbrellas, are useful only when actually opened.