My goal is to work through critical global problems, such as climate change and the looming budget crisis. Hopefully, I’ll contribute to the conversation. My political ideology is compassionate pragmatism, accepting reality and doing our best to help as many stakeholders as possible.
I love doing deep dives on problems, but I believe the only way we can examine them properly is through big picture thinking. You will see that most of my writing focuses on both details and how those specifics fit into the entire system.
Compassion lets us understand how different people might be impacted. Pragmatism is checking out how people actually encounter problems. Solutions must be developed for best dealing with the problems and fitting those solutions into the broader system.
Policy is hard. Some of the smartest people try to design it and sometimes utterly fail. That is what makes it interesting. I have been reading The Economist since grade school and have an economics degree from the University of Chicago. Yet, I still get surprised by how complicated our problems can get. That’s probably because behind all the laws and the numbers are people and people are complicated.
After more than a decade as an energy trader, I have come to understand that conundrum. People constantly disguise their intentions or change their minds or generally do things in ways seemingly counter to their best interests. I also learned how important it is to properly assess a situation before acting – and then being decisive when you do. It does not matter what you wanted to happen, you need to accept reality and let that direct action.
Values help guide decisive action. They serve as the foundation we use when making tough decisions. I was lucky enough to have two incredible parents to show me the way. My dad showed me what integrity means and how to find joy in each day. From my mom, I learned deep compassion and Dutch pragmatism. The Dutch haven’t lived beneath sea level for centuries, battling that most implacable of enemies – the ocean – by merely hoping.
We have no shortage of long-term problems, often exacerbated by destabilizing global forces. We will need a good dose of pragmatism to deal with the problems while being compassionate about those they impact. Let’s get working.
Feel free to drop me a line on LinkedIn or send me an email at steeg@streamofsteeg.com.