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Bon Journal

Implicit contracts

In other words, there is no free lunch.

Or "what comes around goes around."

In every communication, there's a sender and a receiver.

In every transaction, there's a seller and buyer.

In every encounter, there's a giver and a taker.

What might seem free is not. There is what I call implicit contracts.

When I allow someone to help me, I owe the person a favour. Perhaps not immediately. But at some point I will need to return the favour.

When I help someone, I might expect the same thing. Or at least, I'm conscious of it. Unless I'm returning a favour.

This is perhaps why the godfather's "offer you can't refuse" is loaded with uncertainty. At some point in the future, you will be called upon - to return his favour. And you won't be able to refuse it then.

25 April 2002 Thursday