Leverage Notes #5: The Societal Trust Machine

My car almost overheated on the freeway. While cruising alongside traffic, a glint of red caught my eye. It was a crispy 93 degrees outside, so I had my AC set to 3. The dashboard showed me a flashing red thermometer. I'm used to the dull blue thermometer in the early mornings when my engine is still heating up. But this was the first time I had seen this icon on my Subaru. I turned off the AC to reduce the engine load. The thermometer went away.

My car was running out of coolant. I'll admit that it's been a while since I last checked the coolant levels. I took for granted the feat of engineering that made today's modern cars. Outside of the regular maintenance schedule, I trusted my car to work every time that I turned it on.

For the most part, every part in my car was built to spec and did its function well. The global supply chain did its job to give me the privilege of trusting the reliability of my car. And the reliability relieved me of needing to worry about my car every time I got in. It saved me the trouble of spending weekly hours on car repair. Drivers on the road following a common set of rules reduced cognitive overload and chaos on the streets. I witnessed the societal trust machine in action.

My moment of panic wasn't caused by a malfunctioning system. My driver's manual said to check the coolant levels routinely. It was caused by a dullness in my awareness following consecutive perfect functioning of the machines I use everyday. I saw the value in the systems that we build.

Positive impact can be measured by the quality and quantity of societal trust that it creates. I'll keep an eye out for areas that have gained my trust. It probably won't be the Houston roads. I've hit too many potholes for that one.

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