This will meander a bit for context, apologies in advance.

I like to read /r/amitheasshole. It's something of a guilty pleasure I guess, I dunno. For those not familiar, the subreddit has people post their stories and scenarios and ask if they're the asshole in the situation. Community then comments and specifies NTA (not the asshole), NAH (no assholes here), ESH (everyone sucks here), or YTA (you're the asshole). Generally the post gets flaired based on community response.

Yesterday I read a post there about a guy who was refusing to cross-train at work. I won't link it because this is about context, not shaming, but I feel it's important. His team was working on cross-training each other on skills and such, and his opinion was that he worked hard for three years to learn his skill set and didn't want to risk teaching someone else and be less valuable, as this was his primary skill. He seemed to feel completely justified in hoarding his knowledge, and comfortable that he was right.

The community there pretty much universally voted "NTA" and brought up how the boss just wanted to replace him with someone cheaper, they're your skills you worked for, why should you have to teach others, and on and on, rationalizations on why what he was doing was fine. It was rather disturbing and I felt like I was in bizarro land.

To say I found it distasteful was an understatement. I work in a knowledge field (IT) and at my last job we literally couldn't do the job without sharing knowledge and cross training. I knew Linux well, another guy was a magician with Cisco ASAs, another guy taught me fortigate, I spent time learning Juniper's UI and sharing that with team members. Management actually pushed us toward competition and we basically were like "get bent" because it would have made the job impossible.

Beyond the skills gained, this sharing and collaboration promoted a sense of comradery and boosted everyone's value. I feel like anything else would be insane. I don't believe in hoarding knowledge. It dies if not shared, and by teaching others we strengthen our own grasp on it.

I've taught and trained my replacements at many jobs, often happily. It generally meant I was moving on to something new, and somebody still needed to do it. I know that's not always the case (and hasn't been for me either), but I don't see how screwing someone over by hoarding information they need is of benefit to anyone. It makes them ineffective, and it makes you look bad. And depending on the scale and size of your industry, it could make you unemployable in the longer term.

With regard to the above, it bugged me a lot. And then it made me think of Andrew Yang. Why I think Yang is so important is because he is essentially the opposite of that. He shares knowledge and data. He's helped many start their own entrepreneurial endeavors. He promotes giving. He's the living manifestation of an abundance mindset. And I love it. We need more of this.

I know that "not training, not sharing" comes from a sense of entitlement, but also a place of scarcity. A fear of replacement. And really, it will hurt that person in the long run. Scarcity mentality always does. Those skills won't be useful if not shared in the long run, and someone will eventually be called to task to do the job, and when they can't, the finger will be levied at the individual who refused to train. It's like that. Scarcity mentality only encourages taking, and not giving.

Scarcity mentality takes away from who we could be and makes us less.

Andrew Yang seems to constantly challenge us to be better, more giving, and to promote and grow a mentality of abundance, the kind of sharing and giving that makes us better. I see it in the comradery and civility withing Yang Gang, and the way we can both turn the other cheek at nonsense while promoting the data and information and giving it and seeing more and more people join everyday.

I want to see this abundance mentality nationwide, spread from our highest office. We as a country have become more isolationist, more selfish, and more mentally inflexible the last few years, and I'd love to see the wave wash that away. We can and should be better than this. Andrew sees it, and he spreads abundance and hope wherever he goes. I love it, and I love the sheer joy that seems to surround him.

I honestly think Yang been the most important presidential candidate and public figure our country has had the privilege of knowing and (in our case at least) supporting in potentially decades. And I really look forward to seeing him win and help us move our country forward.