Have you ever wondered about the sequence of events which occur when you withdraw money from an ATM? I have. Why is it that the machine insists that you take your card first before spitting out the money?
I was thinking about this in the morning. The reason that I have is that some consultant probably told the people implementing the ATMs that if the money was given out first, people would tend to take the money and forget the card which would be ejected later.
The underlying principle here is that people won’t forget the ends (i.e. the money) but will forget the means (i.e. the card).
And then my mind wandered off and started thinking about parents. I’m not sure if it is common in most relationships, be it between a parent and child or two lovers, where whenever one party wants something from the other, the party desiring something will express some mix of affection, attention, affirmation towards the other party where the degree of expression is higher than when nothing is desired.
Basically, do people commonly say ‘I Love You’ followed by ‘Can I Have The Latest ___’.
With reference to the question concerning ATMs above, do people also have the same propensity to quickly forget those who have provided the means to achieve the ends they want.
How then can we make sure the provider isn’t forgotten?
More importantly how do we prevent the provider for being faulted when the means to achieve the ends we desire can no longer be given.
Chapter 16 of ‘The Prince’ by Machiavelli might provide the answer:
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