Diverging Value Systems

Of course, you prefer when your value system intersects with the value system of another person. It makes for a pleasant collaboration.

An ideal collaboration goes beyond the scope of the initial problem. An ideal collaboration is an unfamiliar journey for its collaborators.

The key ingredient for that to happen is for the collaborators to have somewhat diverging value systems.

One likes red, another likes blue, a third likes green... now they have a color wheel between the three collaborators with seemingly infinite combinations. Without that diversity, we would have gradients of the same color and nothing more.

Very few people have completely identical value systems. Chances are, your collaborators will bring something unique and diverse to the table.

All you have to do is encourage the diversity and not promote the sameness.
This part is tough.

Intersecting Value Systems

Imagine five apples.
You are asked to choose one.
You are told they all taste exactly the same.
But your choice will be judged on criteria unknown to you.
You are allowed to not play.

Analytical thinking is emotionless and structured. Analytical thinkers are good at categorizing. An analytical thinker will put the apples in categories by size, shape, color, surface defects, presence or absence of stem, etc. But they will have to predict the judge's value of these categories which they don't know.

An emotional thinker will know which apple makes them feel the best. Maybe one apple reminds them of a story in their favorite children's book. Or maybe one looks like the apples their parent's tree used to bear. But the judge's value is yet unknown.

There are two value systems at play in this game. One is the value system of you, the participant. The other is the value system of the judge. Even if the judge's value system is unknown, it is still important to the choice.

Success is when the your value system intersects with that of the judge. But success is also when your value system comes close enough when no one else tried.