Challenge is a hard item to grade. After all, what’s challenging to me might be a cake walk for you. Further, if I work really hard – spend hours – on a project, especially a creative project, it might be considered a piece of junk compared to yours that you’ve put together in an hour.

Unless you ask my mother, then obviously mine is just as good as yours.

When faced with the industrial task of grading somebody, we must make a scale; there must be some sort of scheme we can use to compare quality. Past experiences, popular expectations, text book results all tell us how to scale and what to expect.

How on earth can your or I grade an inner feeling of quality? Why don’t we work in colors, giving creators a color grade on what they’ve done.

Oh, I really enjoy this, quite a bit. I like how the swirls there are evident. I’m giving this one a Purple.

The common scale, once we escape the schooling system, is a monetary scale. “I like this, I’m going to pay more for this.” Or alternatively: “This cheap thing broke on me, I wouldn’t spend a dime on it.”

It’s important to be aware of how we’re grading the world; how we’re grading people, efforts, quality, influence, habits, culture, accuracy, etc. can have drastic effects on the future development of the world, and our interactions with it.

What have you graded today?