The Cult of Value

Dear business bros: money and value are not the same thing.

The Laws of Value

  1. Maximize value. The prime directive is to maximize the creation and distribution of value.
  2. Monetization kills value. In general, monetization tends to diminish the distribution of value.
  3. Except when it doesn't. Beyond a certain scale, after exhausting efforts to increase efficiency, monetization is required in order to increase the distribution of value.
  4. Most value can't be monetized. Only a few kinds of value are well-suited to monetization. Most value resists monetization. (More precisely, most people resist monetization of most kinds of value.)
  5. Success is measured by value. Value without monetization is still success. Monetization without value is always failure.

Monetizeable Value

What kinds of value are well-suited to monetization? Essentially, value that customers are delighted to pay for. The value must be such that it is possible to create it and distribute it while meeting the following conditions:

  • Customers have an abundance of goodwill, often because they have already received substantial value without having to pay.
  • Customers desire the monetized value. They choose it, it is not forced upon them.
  • Customers understand and accept why the pricing model used is necessary for the provision of the monetized value.
  • Always leave money on the table. Pricing must be set such that customers would have been happy to pay more. They feel like they got a good deal.

Underlying principles

  • What is money for? Think it through.
  • Money is a medium of exchange, not a store of intrinsic value.
  • Money is exchanged for value. What would you exchange money for? That's what you value. By definition, value is more important to you than money. That's why you trade money to get it.
  • Money depends on value. Value can exist without money. Money is meaningless without value.

The Cult of Value

The Cult of Value is a disorganized, decentralized, leaderless group of like-minded individuals who believe and apply some interpretation of the Laws of Value.

By design, most of the cult members do not know or accept that they are members. We appreciate their membership.