Endless, unlimited and more. These are building blocks of capitalism.
Starbucks knows that they can’t get you to drink three coffees every morning, but their stock price is built on the idea that they can continue to get more customers and make more money from each one.
The Wedding-Industrial complex is built on the simple idea that your wedding should cost the same as your best friend’s wedding did (plus a little more).
The status ratchet is real, and it’s easy to be seduced by it. “Compared to what” is a fundamental component of marketing.
One reason this works is that a little progress gets you positive feedback, which makes you eager to find a little more, a cycle that doesn’t end. Infinity, all the way up.
And, for those seeking social change, the opposite is worth noting:
When asking for penance, self-control and good behavior, infinity is not a useful tool. When someone shows up and tries to do better, “that’s not good enough,” is not a particularly useful motivator.
The useful process begins by earning enrollment in the journey toward better, but it’s not amplified by our criticism of each action being imperfect.
Go-up infinity is about ‘more.’ But too often, social-good infinity is about ‘pure’. And pure is difficult to embrace, because anything less than pure feels like failure.