Engineering Generosity
Collection to inspire the book
Engineering Generosity
Being good at reciprocity means knowing your friend well enough to know what kinds of things will contribute to them feeling loved and valued.
Kat Vellos • We Should Get Together: The Secret to Cultivating Better Friendships
Trust and friendship
Ultimately, the non-transactional thing works on the basis of trust. You have to have trust first, before you can get that virtuous cycle going, because you have to start by giving and not knowing what you'll get back. It's something like an abundance mindset, trust in the community. But at the same time, if you give and you don't get meaningful... See more
Divya Siddarth • Building Capacity for Exit to Community
Trust
None of us are saints, but we can all try to be better. Each time you do something generous, you're shaping yourself into someone who's more likely to be generous next time, and that matters.
Ted Chiang • Exhalation: Stories
Generosity is self-perpetuating
What is the value of work in a world on the cusp of automation, and how will humans redefine their relationship with it?
Our Centaur Future - A RADAR Report
Work isn’t valuable. People are. People can set a value on the work that is done, therefore, they are the most valuable piece of the equation. Work for the sake of work has no value.
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
Creators make money so they can make stuff, instead of the other way around.
Dr. Gena Gorlin • Fantastic Builders and Where to Find Them, 5th Installment
This is an important thing to realize.
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
Generous people view their possessions as temporary; they are joining in a bigger story. Generous people are always looking toward the needs of others by using what they have been given. Things don’t matter; people do. They open their house to others. They open their pool for parties. They let people borrow their cars. They freely give, with no
... See moreJeff Shinabarger • More or Less: Choosing a Lifestyle of Excessive Generosity
People matter
The principle here is reciprocity, but notice that it is not simultaneous. Unlike the notion of barter, time is allowed to elapse before one deed is repaid by another. Trust is required to bridge that gap. Unlike barter, the exchange is not mechanistic in that it does not place a concrete value on one deed versus another. Rather it is inherently... See more
Richard Pickering • Reciprocity as a Business Model
Time gap requires trust