Tim O’Reilly has been writing, speaking and doing a lot to promote his idea to “Work On Stuff That Matters” lately. His first principles post gives some great context for why you can’t go wrong if you follow that advice.

While reading the post what occurred to me is that Tim is just explaining the mechanics for why the golden rule is actually a great rule. The ethics of reciprocity work, and they work in bubbles as well as in busts. In fact O’Reilly suggests you can predict an impending bust by the ratio of people working “on stuff that matters” versus people just looking for their next paycheck.

Principle #2 in O’Reilly’s article is the essence of the golden rule: “Create more value than you capture”.

If you believe the universe is a place of abundance, and act according to #2, then aren’t you “paying it forward”?

Note: “Pay It Forward” is a movie I’ve never seen, but it’s on my queue.