Sometimes I figure things out that are so obvious, I surprise myself. That seems to be how it works, the simplest answers (and realities) are often the hardest to see. But I've been really challenging myself to open my eyes to my reality and I've seen a few things.
And the sliding scale helps me make sense of them.
The first is that we all live on this scale. Most people live somewhere in the middle. But not all of us. Different choices and challenges will register differently, as discipline or chaos, for each of us depending on our samskaras and whatever it is we are meant to face in this life. What may look like chaos to you (say... living in a developing nation), registers as discipline for me.
And in addition to each of us having different standards for what is austerity and what is wrecklessness, we each need a different balance of the two. Some people need to live life off the cuff and learn from that. Some people need to settle into responsibility and face those challenges.
Basically, each of us has a very unique window of experience on the sliding scale. We are each intensely unique beings trying to work through our own karma and our own lessons. We can't expect our lessons to teach others the same things because we have no way of knowing where on the scale another persons window is, or where in (or out of!) their own window their little dot has settled. And when we try to help each other and advise each other, the best we can do is share what we've learned from the experiences that have helped us grow. If we insist that what works for us will work for them then we'll do more harm then good.
Sometimes I am amazed that we can help each other at all.