The Incentive to Resist

While change is certain within life, it is something we often resist. With change comes uncertainty and intentional change can make that uncertainty feel more real. 

We resist change in people we care about, in company policies, in restaurant menus — especially in politics.

We’re living through a time in the United States where change feels constant — often intentional, but rarely well thought out.

Public policies are shifting. Government organizations are being dismantled. Our economic relationships with other countries are being disrupted — and depending on who you ask, it’s either a step forward or a disaster.

When you find somebody with a strong held belief towards a change, it’s important to ask why. 

What makes them resistant to this change? How does it impact them? What are their incentives to be for or against it?

Take the oil industry. As renewable energy grows, resistance builds — not always because the science is in question, but because entire livelihoods, power structures, and profit margins are at stake.

Or teachers in classrooms pushing back against new technologies. I remember being told as a child that we would never carry calculators with us to the store as a justification to learn math. That was laughably wrong. 

Now, teachers push back against using AI instead of leaning into the technology to learn topics that will likely be obsolete to know in the future when they could instead focus their lessons on effective use of AI to support their learning. 

You could even look at yourself and the people you interact with. What comes to mind when I say, oh, they have really changed…?

You likely didn’t read that in a positive voice. We don’t like when people change as it doesn’t benefit us and how we perceive those people. But in a perfect world, everybody you know will change to some degree as they are growing throughout their lives. 

We either support or protest change for our survival. This can be financial survival. Physical survival. Or the survival of our beliefs. 

When someone is resistant to or staunchly supports a change, don’t argue. Ask: What do they stand to lose? What do they stand to gain? What do they fear? What are the incentives influencing their perspective?

We get into trouble when we accept black-and-white arguments at face value — when we let the loudest voice in the room dictate what’s good or bad without asking: who benefits if I believe this?

Change isn’t the enemy. But the people most afraid of it will always try to make it yours.