Constructive Collaborators vs. Egos Grinding in Our Gears (OW006)
⁘ Created: 2026-01-31 ⁘ Updated: 2026-02-22
Examining and deconstructing maladaptive behaviors that complicate and sabotage our collaboration. All substantial works toward a better world are poisoned when our shared operations become platforms and playgrounds in service of your ego.
Who's onboard? We have the parasitic slackers. The experts showing off for no reason. The dedicated belittlers of any genuine skill. The incompetent who resist upskilling. The general purpose fault-finders. A toxic crowd with no future hope.
One day yet we'll get over ourselves. Attending to the good work for its own sake. Each in our true capacities, advancing the collective operation. Without the need to somehow make it all about ourselves. That'll be the day the world changes!
Oh how I wish we could all work together. Productive collaboration in transforming the world into a better place for all. But how does it seem so so very complicated? When capitalist industries are blazing through the world at unreal levels of efficiency, how is it that you all healers and makers of a better world don't seem to accomplish much of anything at all? Let's deconstruct.
When you're at your workplace in a professional setting, you get paid for it, and that's it. When you're not, when you're volunteering, you need other rewards. You do not selflessly volunteer. Instead, it becomes a platform for your ego. Setting yourself apart by demonstration of your skills, looking for underlings to dominate and control.
At the bottom tier of operations, you have the lazy slackers idling, bumming around, hoping for something fun to land on their plates, not moving their asses, doing what needs to be done. Then you have the experts diligently showing off their skills, crafting what needs not to be done, simply to stand apart.
On the other hand, you have the critics of the skilled expert, "you're just doing that to show off", without any regard as to whether it was a job well done, or actually needed to be done or not, or whether it benefits us all. Then you have those without an adequate level of skills and competence. Do tell them that they should be upskilling, improving — how offended, "am I not good enough?" Well you're not. Right?
And then again, you have those looking for faults. Any problem that could be churned out. Someone to put down, so you can feel superior yourself. And all of that is obviously very toxic to a healthy collaborative environment. All of it ultimately stemming from us putting ourselves first, instead of the operation first.
It also doesn't matter if it's done my way, your way, or the other person's way. Whatever is the best way forward, the implementation details do not matter. The essence of the accomplishment matters, the meaningfulness of the process itself matters.
So you know, if we could all just do the good work for its own sake, without trying to reflect it all back into our little selves, we could get so much more done together. When your investment into it, where your enthusiasm in engagement, does not depend on how much you get out of it for your little ego.
Whether it's money you're after, or mental gratification, none of that counts for selfless work. Good works for the benefit of many, for the benefit of all, they cannot stem from our fractured identities. When there's poison in the beginning, where there's poison in the middle, there will also be poison in the end.
When, if ever, these hurdles to genuine collaboration can be surmounted, I know not. But if not, we will not transform for the better, not as individuals, not as a collective, moving on to the next stage in our evolution. That much is clear. Please try and deconstruct your complexes. Then you will be a constructive member of the whole.