Bomb and gouge.

Six foot one, 240 pound Bryson DeChambeau won this year’s U.S. Open.
No, not tennis… golf.
And his aggressive victory is a metaphor for our troubled times.
Bryson bombed and gouged his way to success.
Swinging for the fences and angling from the rough.
Unconcerned with how he looked or what other people thought.
He simply took advantage of the game as it exists today.
His brute strength supplanting finesse and accuracy.
And his $2.25 million end justifying his bombs-away means.
The dynamics of incentives and rules drove Bryson’s game.
And it will, eventually, change the game of golf.
If we’re not careful, those same dynamics will reshape the very game of life.
Incentives and rules.
Gaming the system.
Power over principle.
That seems to be the way of our dog-eat-dog world.
It has changed the game of American football.
Fans desire for violent visual drama.
Plus millions of dollars in advertising-supported incentives.
Equals bigger, more aggressive players with high tech, armored uniforms.
It has also changed the game of investing, business, politics, and policing.
Do you see it?
We have fallen into a lazy and dangerous paradigm.
One which has created a culture of clever winners and stupid losers.
And a bomb and gouge mentality.
Increasingly aggressive and cunning rhetoric and behavior.
A “what’s good is what’s good for me and mine” mindset.
Please open your eyes and behold the truth.
We are mismanaging the tension of incentives and rules.
And it will end up tearing us apart.