@deshipu No, I don't mean that. And not that people don't matter. Is that some choices matter to survival, and some don't.
Some trivial examples:
1) My tribe can choose to not develop bows and spears. It's fine until the neighboring tribe decides to develop them, and comes to kill us and take our land.
2) As a business owner, I can choose to not advertise dishonestly. Up until my direct competitor decides the opposite, at which point they're in position to outcompete me.
@deshipu Related to 2) is 2a): I can choose to not be dishonest even if my competitor is, if I'm sitting on a pile of cash or have other successful branches in unrelated markets.
The difference between 2) and 2a) is that in the former, the choice is a life-or-death matter for my business (and good-or-bad life for me); in the latter case, it doesn't threaten survival - so I can stick to my higher values (and possibly pay a premium for it).
All those things we talk about are some version of this phenomenon.
