Most barns are red. Barns are red because red paint is cheap. Red paint is cheap because iron is plentiful. Iron is plentiful because it’s a common element in dying stars. Dying stars eject iron when they collapse and explode.
Internet copypasta that contains bulletproof logic, right? Well, maybe.
Or maybe barns are red because farmers mixed iron oxide (rust) into linseed oil to make a paint that adhered better, lasted longer, and prevented rotting (rust kills fungi and moss).
Or maybe barns are red because of supply and demand. Farmers painted barns red because they saw other farmers doing it, and as a result, red paint became cheaper because manufacturers could sell so much of it, and then farmers bought even more red paint.
Or maybe most barns aren’t red, because you’re not in the United States.
The point isn’t red barns. It’s how easily our minds latch onto explanations for why things are the way they are. Does a tidy explanation mean something is true? Nope. We often can’t see how each gear drives the full sequence.
Sometimes the paint is chipping, and the barn just needs repainting. No deeper meaning or speculation required.
The trick is to make larger systems work in your favor, even when you don’t fully understand the cause-effect chains. To grease the right gears so they work for you, not on you. Even when you can’t see the full (often hidden) machinery, you can zero in on specific principles to get an edge.
What kind of principles? Stealth. Speed. Habits. Evolution. Momentum. Compounding. Optionality. These aren’t hacks, magic, or cheats. They’re levers a small contingent of people pull to get more done, and to get more from what they do. Slight edges you can earn with a bit of focused work and obedience.
“Methinks that in looking at things … we are too much like oysters observing the sun through the water, and thinking that thick water the thinnest of air.”
~Herman Melville, Moby Dick (Book)
