I have a bet with some of my favorite people — that each of us will write a blog post every month before the first weekend ends. There are a million penalties if you miss. I’d do what is in the penalty clause for any of those people in a heartbeat if they were to ask, but given that it is a bet, I’d also do everything in my power to ensure that I don’t lose the bet.
It is easy to use ChatGPT to create a blog post, or to write something easy to get it over with. However, it is not a win if it doesn’t feel like it. Let me explain.
The spirit of the contract
Every contract has more to it than is put into its text. Every contact has a purpose. Weirdly, the purpose of the contract is (almost) never put into the actual contract wording. It is like when using the OKR system in a team, you discuss the Key Results, but leave out the Objectives — the whole reason why the key results were put in place in the first place.
It is like enacting a law that says that everyone must each broccoli every day, and if they don’t, they will be fined 1000 rupees. We forget to mention that the reason this law was enacted was to make sure that people get enough greens and stay healthy.
The spirit of the contract is lost when people start finding loopholes around the language of the contract. “All the contract said was that I need to consume broccoli — it did not say anything about whether it could be fried or not”
Every contract or law or agreement has a purpose. This purpose should be called out explicitly.
The bet about the blog post
What is the spirit of the blog post bet with my favorite people? We actually did not discuss it, but in my mind it is implied — to get ourselves to do something we have been wanting to do.
The discussed terms of the bet are however quite simple — like Key Results in OKRs, they are measurable — “A blog post must be delivered by each partaker before the end of the first Sunday of each month, or else they lose the bet”. This unfortunately fails to capture the spirit of the bet.
Doing it right
Do you feel you’re cheating yourself when you comply with the wording but not with the spirit of the contract? I most definitely do. Sure — there are times where it doesn’t matter, but there are some contracts that are more special than the others and for those contracts I want to make sure I comply with the spirit of the contract, and not just with the wording. I would feel as if I’m cheating if I don’t do it that way.
Why do it right?
How does it matter, you may ask. It matters for your self worth. Sub-consciously, you know when you have ‘kind of cheated’ and it makes you think less of yourselves. There might be contracts where it makes sense to do only the minimum required, but there are contracts where you want to do a lot more — and the funny thing is that these are contracts that are usually not business related. They are about relationships, friendships, self-growth, and self-reflection.
But not complying with the wording of the contract also makes me feel bad
That is true — so why not do both — comply with the wording as well as the spirit of the contract. If it is so important to you, then you will make sure you do both. If you don’t, then maybe it is not as important to you as you tell yourself.