weaver

from Charles Marohn of Strong Towns:

“Abundance is a powerful idea. But what kind of abundance? And who decides?

Derek Thompson and Ezra Klein’s new book, Abundance, is a thoughtful, energetic call to reform the systems holding us back. Housing, infrastructure, clean energy -- it’s all stuck -- and the book rightly asks: why can’t we build?

I agree with much of the diagnosis. But I’ve seen this movie before. From The Lexus and the Olive Tree to JC Nichols’ “Planning for Permanence,” the belief that smart people can fix complex systems from the top down has a long, seductive history and a deeply fragile legacy.

The Strong Towns approach offers something different. Not bigger reform from above, but a culture of bottom-up action. A belief that better decisions come from local feedback, iteration, and care, not from confidence in the machine.

This isn’t about “local control” as a sacred principle. It’s about local capacity: the ability for communities to solve problems at the scale of lived experience. We’re not anti-state or anti-policy. We’re anti-fragility. A system that only works when the “right people” are in charge isn’t strong enough.

Start with a local challenge.
Shift the narrative.
Show one example.
Build on success.

Abundance asks us to empower others to fix what we already have the power to change. We think you don’t need to wait for permission.”

see ‘case clinic’ exercise for perceiving a problem/project from an intuitive and sensory standpoint, rather than an analytical, left-brained, logic-/data-driven standpoint.

::: a network for networks :::

for consultants and field-builders: working to strengthen capacities and advance the practice of impact networks

In South Africa's Sesotho language, "fito" (fee-toh) means "joining diverse pieces or people to make one powerful effort".