The “master anecdote” for this week’s chapter — “Cooperation vs. Competition” — is a sketch of a family that’s run completely on a competitive basis: the kids have to earn the right to a ride to school, etc.

The point was to establish that some institutions in society — family is the prime example — are overwhelmingly cooperative.  And even institutions that are more competitive — school, work — could use a balance between cooperation and competition in order to run better.

(School is famous, for example, for not training workers very well for the world of work.  There are multiple reasons why this is so, but balance of cooperation and competition is among them.)

The work is going pretty well, although I was no more prepared for this chapter than for 1 or 2.