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.
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
... See moreMandy Brown • Against Optimization
Optimization of scarce systems is about past measurement. Optimization of abundant systems is about future outcomes.
Kindness isn’t always easy or obvious, because the urgent race to the bottom, to easily measured metrics and to scarcity, can distract us. But bending the arc toward justice, toward dignity and toward connection is our best way forward.
Seth Godin • Three types of kindness
Seth has a lot of good ideas on this. Should tie in to his ideas more.
As Brian Merchant argues in his book, Blood in the Machine , the rebellion was more nuanced than we realize, standing “not against technology per se but for the rights of workers above the inequitable profitability of machines.”
Our Centaur Future - A RADAR Report
This is what abundant systems recognize. It’s not about the machines or the data, it’s about the humans. When we build abundantly, we ensure that everyone is taken care of, because that builds the best possible long-term future.
scarce systems do what is most likely to succeed right now, because tomorrow isn’t guaranteed. Abundant systems assume that tomorrow will be there, so it’s ok to focus on longer term goals.
Introduction to Abundant Systems
System timelines - short-term scarcity vs long-term abundance
Where we invest our time also has a Return on Energy (ROE).
Return on Energy
it's important we don't rush.
Divya Siddarth • Building Capacity for Exit to Community
Things need to evolve on the timelines that information is returned.
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.