Abundant Systems

We may live in an age of abundance, but with our sense of self tied to the proprietorship of rivalrous assets, scarcity will need to exist. Even if we must code it ourselves.

Mario Gabriele • Scarcity as an API

Abundant systems remove the need for this.

In practice, a startup nonprofit has several important distinctions from traditional nonprofits: 1) it begins with a large goal and works backwards to identify incremental steps to achieve that goal, 2) it has an iterative, experimental mindset, and 3) it is an internet first organization.

marklutter.com • Startup Nonprofits

interesting framing. I’d been focused on the concept of eliminating the distinction between for-profit and non-profit, but this is an alternative way to examine the same problem, looking like it could have similar outcomes.

An abundant system is a system in which any individual in a system acting to achieve their own goals does not negatively impact the other participants’ pursuit of their goals. Another way of saying this is that the system isn’t a zero-sum game.

Introduction to Abundant Systems

“The best way to be superhuman is to do things that you love with other people who love them, too.” - Cory Doctorow, Walkaway

WORLDBUILDING: Multiplayer collaging the future

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a scarce system is one in which there are limited resources and one person in the system getting those resources means that everyone else can’t have those same resources. A zero-sum game.

Introduction to Abundant Systems

Yet, one of the superpowers of connected technologies - networks - is that they will remove scarcity if at all possible. Connected networks by definition make things abundant that were once scarce.

Andy Weissman • On art and business and context and mirrors

This isn’t actually true by default. Networks of scarce systems end up creating winner take all situations from abundance.

There is a whole lot of goodness out there when the right systems are in place.

But you can’t optimize systems in a context that’s changing, especially if it’s changing in unpredictable ways. Removing inefficiencies when circumstances are as anticipated means that there isn’t much slack in the system to respond when the unanticipated happens. Optimization is intrinsically brittle , because it’s about closely matching the

Mandy Brown • Against Optimization

Optimization of scarce systems is about past measurement. Optimization of abundant systems is about future outcomes.

When a Collective joins a Fiscal Host, they get a clear service: we'll hold your money, you don't have to go get a bank account and form your own legal entity, we're going to take care of some really annoying paperwork stuff for you, and we'll give you this nice online tool that lets you share your budget transparently and pay your expenses. On the... See more

Divya Siddarth • Building Capacity for Exit to Community

Abundant System Example