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Stewardship
Holding something in trust for people who are not present: the obligations of a custodian, and the decisions that trade the future for the present.
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01
Deferred Maintenance
The purest form of the stewardship trade. Each year of deferral is defensible, invisible, and transfers a cost to somebody who will hold the position when the thing finally fails.
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02
The Founder Problem
Somebody who built a thing has an authority no successor can inherit and a set of judgments nobody can distinguish from the institution itself. Both are obstacles to it surviving them.
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03
Holding Something in Trust
A steward is accountable to people who are not in the room and cannot advocate for themselves. That obligation conflicts with present interests constantly, and the present is always better represented.