Engineering Generosity
Collection to inspire the book
Engineering Generosity
They value me as a resource, someone who GSD and makes things happen.
They value that I know how to do stuff, so they don’t have to.
But they don’t actually value who I am, what I stand for, or my potential to change the world.
They value that I know how to do stuff, so they don’t have to.
But they don’t actually value who I am, what I stand for, or my potential to change the world.
Alicia Bonner • Why do you work?
They valued the wrong things.
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.
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
While computing power grows in exponential leaps, the pace of transition to a green economy that would cleanly fuel that growth lags far behind.
noemamag.com • Will AI Bring Plentitude or Further Imperil the Planet? | NOEMA
Incentive structures don’t map to ultimate high-value results
However, if we truly aim at discussing the economy at a level where we can start to grasp it in its broadest sense we need to add the “invisible” economy, or what is more often called the non-monetary economy. This is a system of economies typically embedded in a monetary economy yet it undertakes tasks that benefit society by means that the... See more
Jenny Grettve • economicspaces
Money is a captured subset of human value created. For people with plenty, it’s the default, because it’s easy to use. But for people without, that value is captured in ways like status, privileges, perks, etc.
In a gift economy, wealth is understood as having enough to share, and the practice for dealing with abundance is to give it away. In fact, status is determined not by how much one accumulates, but by how much one gives away. The currency in a gift economy is relationship, which is expressed as gratitude, as interdependence and the ongoing cycles
... See moreRobin Wall Kimmerer • The Serviceberry: An Economy of Abundance – Robin Wall Kimmerer
In a you-or-me world, reciprocity and collaboration don’t fit.
Lynne Twist • The Soul of Money: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Life
Competition ruins collaboration
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
That means there are three main components to identify when looking at a system: the people, the interaction (i.e. the sharing of information), and the shared context (i.e. what that group of people have in common).
Introduction to Abundant Systems
Breaking down a system - look at the 3 components