Platforms are interest-based connections, while relationships are governed by human connections.

The economic base determines the superstructure. When the links of self-interest are severed, what holds human relationships together?

Take this example: you're as close with your boss as real brothers, and then the company ceases to exist. Or maybe your boss genuinely treats every employee like a brother, but then the entire industry disappears.

Should you manage workplace relationships well?
Absolutely. A person spends most of their life working, and you spend far more time with your superiors and colleagues than with your family.
Even if you know these relationships are temporary arrangements—fake brotherhood—the reality is that these "fake brothers" might spend more time with you than your actual brothers do.

What's the underlying logic of your relationship? The surface-level explanation is simple: life is a stage, all about performance, playing your part, navigating social conventions—it's necessary. But the true core is that he has value to you, and you have value to him. That is the foundation of workplace relationships. It's about joining forces, hunting together—that's the real foundation.

He can't get around it, so he'll naturally help you. Because at the end of the day, he isn't helping you—he's helping himself through helping you.

So the most important thing is the chain of self-interest, and only after that comes the chain of human relationships.

When you need resources, your first instinct should be: how do I create mutual benefit to build a chain of self-interest?

Others aren't coming to help you—they're coming to get their own benefits, and along the way, they'll help you out.