Conversations For Transformation: Essays Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard

Conversations For Transformation

Essays By Laurence Platt

Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard

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On Not Making A Difference

Joshua's Home On Wheels, Hillside Drive, East Napa, California, USA

April 29, 2026


"I don't believe in what I'm doing at all. I have absolutely no belief in what I'm doing. I already know how it's going to turn out. The way it turns out is fait accompli. I mean there's nothing I can do about the way it turns out. I know exactly how it's going to turn out. You know, it's going to turn out exactly like it turns out. It's been doing that for eons. So you say 'But then Werner: what's your motive? What are you working all those hours for?'. I'm not motivated. There isn't any motive. There's no damn vision  motivating me. You know, if I stopped doing it tomorrow, it wouldn't make a damn bit of difference. And if I keep doing it right to the end, it won't make any difference. The only thing that's going to happen is what happens. But that doesn't fit into our structure. That doesn't fit into our categories."*
... 
responding to a hypothetical suggestion that he believes in what he's doing because he's motivated by a vision

"What accounts for the paradox of Werner's assertion that stopping making a difference doesn't make any difference, and that making a difference doesn't make a difference?"
... Laurence Platt listening Werner on not making a difference
This essay, On Not Making A Difference, is the companion piece to I Don't Believe In What I'm Doing.

I am indebted to Josh Cohen who contributed material for this conversation.


It's an utterly extraordinary quote, ranking right up there with all Werner's extraordinary quotes, in this case also ranking right up there along with his most extraordinary pieces  of quotes. You'll find the full text of the extraordinary quote above this essay. And embedded below is the piece of it I'm fleshing out. Notice what you get from it. See if you can listen it from the space he's coming from when he's speaking it. Just so that we're all clear about the efficacy of deploying pieces  of his quotes, consider this: transformation is holographic, thus any piece of any of his transformative* quotes, is transformative as well.

OK, here's Werner:


<quote>

YOU KNOW, IF I STOPPED DOING IT TOMORROW, IT WOULDN'T MAKE A DAMN BIT OF DIFFERENCE. AND IF I KEEP DOING IT RIGHT TO THE END, IT WON'T MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE.

<unquote>


I wasn't merely shaken by it: I was rocked  by it. Secondarily what rocked me was the quote itself and what it brings forth. Primarily what rocked me was Werner speaking of things of this magnitude as nonchalantly as if he were ordering a pizza to go. I looked intently at his assertion that no matter what he does, it won't make any difference. I mean ... Wow!  And if not him, then who? Then I looked at what I do under the guise of making a difference. And I realized that what I consider making a difference is, more often than not merely reflects a concept  of making a difference. In the quote, Werner lays bare what we consider making a difference is (and what we consider it isn't). And both happen out of "The only thing that's going to happen is what happens.".

Whatever we do or don't do, whatever we end up doing or not doing, is always and only what turns out anyway. That's exactly the way life unfolds: it turns out the way it turns out, no matter what we do or don't do. Period. On face value, that's hard to get. It raises all sorts of issues about free will, fate, destiny etc. My question then becomes: if things always and only turn out the way they turn out (and now there's ample agreement that things do always and only turn out the way they turn out), is it authentic to suggest that what I do, makes a difference? If it doesn't make a difference, then who am I in the matter?

Now fast forward to my answer to this inquiry, to its resolution (if you will), and try it on for size. I'm not saying it's the right answer, or even that there is an answer at all. I'm just speculating here: things turn out the way they turn out no matter what I do. So what I do in an attempt to have things turn out differently than the way they turn out, doesn't make any difference, and who am I in the matter of that stand? However if what I do, if how I live, if what I represent ie if what I stand for  is that things always and only turn out the way they turn out, that stand  makes a difference, and who am I in the matter of that stand? The former has making a difference as a bon mot, a good idea, doing the right thing, a concept etc, none of which make any difference. The latter, living with (or better than that, living from)  things always and only turn out the way they turn out, and being a stand for that, makes a difference.

It's a grand paradox: nothing I do makes any difference, yet when I stop trying to make a difference and allow things to turn out the way they always and only turn out (which they will do anyway), I make a difference. That is such a vexing paradox, such an astonishingly Zen paradox. Indeed it's very Werner.

* Click here to listen Werner speaking this quote on archive.org, the internet archive.

Werner is speaking at a research seminar sponsored by the Center for the Study of New Religious Movements, Graduate Theological Union on Thursday April 23, 1981.

Look for and select the 29:37 mark on side 2.

Technical support is unavailable for accessing this audio of Werner.
* Transformational or transformative?

transformational: pertaining to  transformation

transformative: causing  transformation

Citation: wikidiff

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