HUMI: The Human Universal Model of Interaction

Working with, not against, our evolutionary wiring

The Core Insight

An optimum human operation can only be achieved when we think and work in a manner that is in equilibrium with our unique biology - specifically, our inherited unconscious drive to cooperatively trade with other humans.

We are both enabled and limited by our brain structures. More than we consciously realize, our decisions are performed by our unconscious System 1 fast thinking. System 1 thinking is organized around fundamental drives, including the compulsion to collaboratively exchange value with others.

Evolution established these hardwired circuits long ago through countless iterations. We are built for exchange. We are made to trade. Think of us as cooperative value-seeking systems - consistently, safely, reliably, and repeatedly optimizing for mutual benefit. The evolutionary trials that failed to develop sustainable cooperation strategies simply didn't survive to pass on their patterns.

The Trading Brain

HUMI applies insights from neuroscience and evolutionary psychology to explain why our workplaces often feel so difficult. The proposal is simple: our "rational" and "irrational" behaviors, market decisions, workplace dynamics, and productivity paradoxes all make sense when viewed through the lens of our fundamental trading nature.

Every knowledge work interaction can be understood as an exchange:

• "I'll give you my analysis if you give me your data"

• "I'll focus on your priority if you focus on mine"

• "I'll take responsibility for delivery if you take responsibility for requirements"

When these exchanges feel fair and sustainable, our unconscious mind relaxes and cooperation flows naturally. When they feel one-sided or exploitative, System 1 creates resistance - the friction we experience as workplace stress, politics, and inefficiency.

The Friction Problem

Most organizational problems stem from working against rather than with our trading nature. We create unnecessary cognitive load when we:

• Make demands without offers

• Establish unclear value exchanges

• Create one-sided benefit extraction

• Break reciprocity patterns

This friction isn't just uncomfortable - it's wasteful. Like trying to force water uphill, fighting our cooperative wiring consumes energy that could be used for productive work.

The HUMI Solution

The good news is that we can increase equilibrium between System 1 and System 2 thinking. This can be accomplished by consciously practicing work patterns that align with our unconscious trading drives.

Think Like a Trader means:

1. Frame interactions as exchanges - What am I offering? What am I requesting?

2. Ensure reciprocity - Is this trade fair for both parties?

3. Build sustainable relationships - Will this pattern work long-term?

4. Make value explicit - Are we both clear on what we're exchanging?

When we practice this consciously, the thinking eventually transfers to System 1 - like learning to play an instrument. Our unconscious and conscious minds begin working in harmony rather than conflict.

Natural Optimization

Here's where HUMI connects to broader patterns in nature. Systems that efficiently process and exchange energy tend to thrive, while those that create unnecessary resistance tend to decline. Human cooperation represents a particularly sophisticated form of this optimization - we've evolved the ability to create value through exchange rather than just competing for scarce resources.

Organizations that align with these natural exchange patterns often discover something remarkable: productivity improves not through force or efficiency mandates, but through reducing the friction that was preventing natural cooperation in the first place. It's similar to how removing obstacles allows water to flow more freely, or how well-designed systems seem to organize themselves toward optimal configurations.

The most successful teams and companies often exhibit this quality - they've somehow discovered work patterns that feel natural and sustainable, where value flows efficiently between participants, and where individual success enhances rather than undermines collective outcomes.

Practical Applications

Instead of: "Can you stay late to finish this?"Try: "I'll handle the client call tomorrow if you can finish this tonight"

Instead of: "I need you to prioritize my project"Try: "I'll deprioritize my other requests if you prioritize this one"

Instead of: "Give me your honest feedback"Try: "I'll give you honest feedback on your proposal if you give me honest feedback on mine"

The Meta-Trade

Even requesting someone's thoughts represents a trade - offering acknowledgment and attention in exchange for cognitive effort and insight. The phrase "a penny for your thoughts" intuitively captures this exchange dynamic that underlies all human interaction.

Beyond Individual Practice

While HUMI begins with individual awareness, its real power emerges when groups adopt trading-based thinking. Teams that consciously design their interactions around fair exchange often discover they've created something larger than the sum of their parts - a cooperative system that generates value more efficiently than any individual could alone.

This suggests that our capacity for cooperation isn't just a nice feature of human nature - it may be our most sophisticated technology for creating complex, adaptive systems that serve everyone's interests simultaneously.

The Audacious Proposition

HUMI proposes that we can remove much of the friction and toil we add to our own cognitive load simply by working in ways that are compatible with how we're wired to think about cooperative exchange.

The audacity isn't in claiming this will solve all problems, but in suggesting that many of our workplace difficulties are self-created - artifacts of fighting against rather than working with our fundamental nature.

A Living Model

HUMI remains a work in progress, refined through practice and feedback. Like any useful model, it should be tested, modified, and improved based on real-world application.

The goal isn't to create another management framework, but to help people rediscover something they already know unconsciously: humans work best when we're creating value for each other in ways that feel natural, fair, and sustainable.

After all, we've been perfecting the art of beneficial exchange for millennia. Perhaps it's time to get consciously good at what we're already unconsciously wired to do.

Think like a trader. Work like a human. Optimize like nature.