Letter to Ada

Ada is my 7 year old. We sometimes have deep philosophical conversations on the way to school. This morning, her questions inspired this letter. Ada, This begins with a stuffed toy and ends with why entire companies and countries can keep doing things that almost everybody knows make no sense. Imagine I give you a stuffed toy. You name it, play with it, and decide where it will sleep. 10 minutes later, I take it away. You have exactly as many toys as you had before. But you probably feel worse. Part of that is because I broke a promise. Part is that the toy became yours. Your mind moved the line marked “normal.” Now suppose I had said, “You can borrow this for 10 minutes.” Same toy. Same 10 minutes. A different ending, because you expected to return it. Now imagine you spend 5 years building a startup company or a department inside a bigger company. You hire 100 people. You know their families. Your salary pays for your home and your children’s school. When people ask what you do,…