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

And More


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Nothing Is Missing:

A He Said I Said

Cowboy Cottage, East Napa, California, USA

February 26, 2026



This essay, Nothing Is Missing: A He Said I Said, is the companion piece to It was written at the same time as Tyranny Of The Body.



I get a great deal of the source inspiration and material for all these essays from speaking with people. Simply being in conversations ie in live, face-to-face conversations, is a veritable goldmine if you're looking to gauge where people are at in confronting the possibility of transformation in their day-to-day lives. Sometimes an idea expressed in a conversation becomes the keynote of an essay. Other times it's the conversation itself that becomes the essay. This one is one such essay, and one such conversation. With permission, I'm recreating this conversation for you here in this essay, exactly as it occurred, verbatim:



The He Said I Said



He said: "What if Werner's contribution to transformation and transformation itself was complete, that it's no longer what is missing or needed and can be complete as a conversation? Who's to say if the ideas need to have any life beyond today, that it was like one of those amusement parks that came to town, set up, and then was taken down and disappears? What if longevity is not important?".

I said: "Exactly. He's always said what he does, doesn't make any difference. It turns out the way it turns out anyway.".

He said: "That's a tricky one to consider and get.".

I said: "Got it. And it's true.".

He said: "Most people would read that and then say 'Well therefore that means (this or that).'".

I said: "Of course. Most people are meaning making machines. The power lies in doing what you do anyway, knowing that it doesn't make any difference, because in the end it turns out the way it turns out.".

He said: "I'm so glad I can pick your brain. You're the only person I know personally who speaks the way you speak, and it really works for me. Your parents did a good job with you. You're a great guy.".

I said: "It works for me to speak it with you. In that way, I get to hear what I'm saying, and get more facile with it. With regard to my parents, I learned about how not to be with them. When I got clear about my errors with my parents, I began to grow up.".

He said: "Something unrelated I want to share with you that I got today when I was at the shopping mall and passed a group of young teenage boys all acting and being teenager boys, the clothes, hair, way of acting etc. I have been treating my not understanding teenagers as their failing, calling them obnoxious or other insulting labels, and what I saw today is that it is actually my deficiency and my  failing to be with them.".

I said: "I get it. You're accurate, and well done for getting that. We could write a book on what people do to avoid being people, and teenagers have their own brand of avoidance in that regard, probably more so than any other age group.".

He said: "If I say 'Things turn out the way they turn out, nothing I do makes any difference', people think I'm a fatalist and I'm saying that there's no such thing as free will and that I am saying that we are powerless. But I don't make that conclusion.".

I said: "If I ever get into conversations like that about fatalism and free will etc, I ask people to show me one instance, just one, where things turned out the way they didn't  turn out.".

He said: "Ha! That's what I said.".


Closing Section Header



Nothing is missing: a he said I said nothing is missing: a he said I said nothing is missing: a he said I said nothing is missing: a he said I said nothing is missing: a he said I said nothing is missing: a he said I said nothing is missing: a he said I said nothing is missing: a he said I said nothing is missing: a he said I said nothing is missing: a he said I said nothing is missing: a he said I said nothing is missing: a he said I said nothing is missing: a he said I said nothing is missing: a he said I said nothing is missing: a he said I said nothing is missing: a he said I said nothing is missing: a he said I said.

[... being tightened up ...]



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