The invisible Operating System

7 imperatives still f***ing us without our consent

I’ve read dozens of books—on psychology, systems, neurobiology, anthropology, philosophy, and even some damn good fantasy.

I’ve spent all my years observing and experiencing our systems on my own skin. I’ve been watching this weird human circus unfold, scribbling in the margins of history books and therapy journals like a maniac with a soft spot for redemption arcs.

It all boiled down to this: we’re all running the same ancient software in our heads.

Doesn’t matter where you were born or what you believe. The code is still in there. And it’s still running. On autopilot.

These aren’t values or preferences. They’re imperatives—internal laws of behavior we’ve filed right next to gravity. It started with survival. Then survival logic became culture. Culture became law. Law became truth. And the truth, as usual, is ugly and may destroy us.

Allow me to walk you through the 7 imperatives that run our collective unconscious. Where they came from. Why they stuck. How they show up in our daily lives, parading as common sense.

Take a deep breath—we are heading into the forgotten basement of the human mind.

1. Surplus = Survival

Origin: Hunter–gatherers lived day to day. Agriculture changed everything — suddenly, food could be stored, hoarded, stolen. Surplus meant life through winter or drought. Surplus became the most desired of outcomes, as it was our life insurance.

Anchoring: Surplus became power. Whoever controlled the grain silos controlled the people. Ancient temples and kings literally were the granaries. Even our written language emerged to keep record of our surplus and who owns it. Yes. Our first written records are not poems or love letters. They are records and receipts.

How they show up: Profit is the new grain. Even when we are drowning in surplus. 30–40% of our global food is wasted. We are building entire islands of trash. And yet “quarterly results” dictate our lives. Strategy is not long term any more—it is not even strategy at this point, it’s just margin obsession. We hoard. We chase more. We call it success.

2. Unpredictability = Danger

Origin: Early humans lived with floods, fires, predators. Predictability = survival. “Order” was sacred—laws, rituals, hierarchy were designed to beat back the chaos. And when the chaos was unpredictable? We gave meaning to it. Natural phenomena quickly was explained by the whims of Gods. There was no limit to what our meaning-making minds could conjure to make us feel safer and more in control of the chaos.

Anchoring: Monotheism in various shapes sharpened this: one God, one Truth, one Law. The many (chaotic) gods of nature were banished. The more convinced we could get that we KNOW the ultimate truth and possess the power of prediction, the better.

How this shows up: We spend more energy planning than doing. Standard operating procedures. KPIs. Risk mitigation plans. Bureaucracy. The war on ambiguity. Absolute resistance to discourse. The illusion of control supersedes the discomfort of change.

3. Sacrifice = Legitimacy

Origin: Agriculture again. Farming required delayed gratification. Work now, eat later. Suffering was the currency of survival, and it was easily paid for the greater good of better chances at safety and predictability.

Anchoring: “By the sweat of your brow you will eat.” Virtue equated with labor, pain, endurance. This glorified suffering in the name of abundance left its stamp throughout our history. Various cultures and religions approached it in many different ways, but they meant the same. Suffering wasn’t just expected—it became the only acceptable way to earn your right to live.

How this shows up: Burnout is a badge of honor. Hustle culture rewards martyrdom. Employees who skip vacations are “dedicated.” We glorify suffering but vilify rest. We cheer when someone answers emails from the ICU. You worked through pneumonia? What a hero! You neglect yourself and your family to generate more income to a select few? Attaboy!

4. Human Worth = Rankable

Origin: Once there was surplus, not everyone was equal. Soldiers, priests, kings, scribes—stratification began. Suddenly your value was attached to the power you held over surplus and those who created it.

Anchoring: Castes, feudalism, nobility. Some lives matter more. Some are expendable. Some were even chosen by God. Comfort/suffering is a birthright.

How this shows up: Org charts. Titles. Status symbols determine service. Say the same sentence in jeans vs. a suit and watch how differently people react. Pay gaps, corner offices, LinkedIn bios—all part of the same illusion: worth can be measured externally.

5. Nature = Resource

Origin: Nature used to be our ally in survival—it nourished us. But once humans farmed, nature stopped being a partner and needed to be dominated. Forests to clear, rivers to dam, soil to control.

Anchoring: Dominion theology. “Man shall have dominion over the Earth.”

How it shows up: Extractive capitalism. No fucks given about the damage we create. The planet screams, and we keep believing it’s ours to use and exploit. We drink from plastic bottles to hydrate after polluting the rivers we once drank from directly. Climate collapse? PR problem. We pivot to Q4 goals.

6. Growth = Virtue

Origin: In prehistory, survival depended on numbers. More kids = more workers, more fighters. Growth was the only defense against annihilation.

Anchoring: “Be fruitful and multiply.” Every empire expanded—or died trying. Actually, this was the biggest catalyst of our collective technological advancement. To expand, we needed better tools and better ways. Always.

How this shows up: Scale or die. Market share mania. Infinite growth on a finite planet and a devil-may-care attitude about unintended consequences. Growth is sacred, growth is the goal, growth over substance, growth for the sake of growth. It’s our ultimate obsession.

Just go lay off 4,000 people and call it optimization. Team feels disoriented afterwards? Hand out booklets about “Growth mindset”. Preach about resilience baked into your DNA. Keep the myth alive. The problem is always people. Not the God of infinite Growth we keep worshiping. 

7. Emotion = Liability

Origin: In the heat of survival—hunting, fleeing, fighting—emotions could get you killed. Panic wasn’t helpful. Hysteria during a mammoth chase? Fatal. So in the moment, suppression was protective. But once the danger passed, emotion wasn’t a liability—it was medicine. Tears were shed. Stories told. Bodies rocked beside fires. Grief, awe, rage, relief—all poured out as a way to metabolize what had happened. Emotion wasn’t weakness. It was how we stayed human after the inhuman moments.

Anchoring: As our systems evolved—toward conquest, militarization, domination—we carried forward the suppression and discarded the expression. We amputated the repair process and called it strength.

As societies grew, and all of the above imperatives took root, emotional restraint wasn’t just adaptive—it was weaponized. Patriarchy declared emotions “feminine,” irrational, or dangerous. Control ruled. Rationality was framed as masculine superiority. Even entire scientific revolutions (looking at you, Enlightenment, Descartes & Co.) were built on the idea that to be right, you had to be unemotional. To be credible, you had to be cold.

How it shows up: Damasio’s megaphone wasn’t big enough. Emotions are still treated like bugs, not features.

Cry at work? Weak. Show too much joy? Unprofessional. Anger? Threatening. Sadness? Inconvenient. You display emotion as a woman? Must be PMS. As a man? Not yourself today.

We perform calmness and call it “maturity.” We train children out of their emotions with timeout chairs and “use your words.” Emotion gets mixed up with bias, while heartless gets labeled as “objective.” Vulnerability is branded “brave” because it’s so rare it shocks us. Entire industries are built on managing feelings without ever honoring them—hello, corporate wellness and a 50% discount on Headspace subscription as a fringe benefit.

So Now what?

If you are still reading, you are already in step 2 of the therapeutic process.

You have seen the pattern. You have recognized it in your own life.

Keep going. Disrupt it. Talk about it. Disobey it. Name it when you see it at play—in your team, your family, your system.

Our own unconscious beliefs relentlessly keep us on a track that we all know in our bones is unsustainable and most likely catastrophic.

These beliefs drove us through thousands of years. They served their time. Let’s honor them—and retire them. These rules were never truths. They were just good stories for a harsher time. And now we need better ones.

And here is the kicker:

We wrote the old ones.

We can write the new ones too.

We do have agency.

Let me invite you into the creation of our new stories.

Here is my first draft. Not perfect. Just human.

• Surplus – only what’s necessary as a backup plan

• Unpredictability – cool, we know how to deal with it

• Sacrifice – only for the truly meaningful

• Human worth – default setting

• Nature – maybe the one worth sacrificing for?

• Growth – only if sustainable

• Emotion – bring it on