Collaboration and trust

The only way we can build a bright future is by working together.

The only way we can work well together is by trusting one another.

The only way we can trust one another is - and this is the hard part - experientially.

There is no algorithm for trust. No dataset, no app.

Trust is built in the same way a child learns how to walk. Hesitantly, falteringly, with tears and triumphs along the way. Until the point at which the child develops an innate understanding - and trust - of his or her physiology and the principles of gravity and friction.

There’s no shortcut, for sure. And yet, in the same way as trusting our legs gives us so much freedom as individuals, trusting one another brings us so much freedom as a collective.

Find one person you feel safe with and that you can build trust with. Then, much later, begin the process of extrapolation. If you can trust one person, maybe you can trust two. Or three. The principle is the same. Eventually you’ll reach a tipping point where your mistrust of others can no longer be held with the certainty it once was.

After all, how lucky can you be, that you have found the only five trustworthy people in a world of 7.5 billion?