This site is about connecting economies with communities and vice versa.
Economies unmoored from community downplay human agency in favour of ‘scientific management’ and an obsession with quarterly earnings. They give rise to neoliberalism, dog-eat-dog competition and accountability-free, faceless globalisation, and unpriced externalities that destroy the planet. Among other things.
Communities unmoored from economies often generate tremendous goodwill and social good but can leave members unable to pay for rent or healthcare. Not all communities are good (though am focusing mostly on collections of people united in desire to make the world a better place) and not all communities need an economic angle. But neither should it be so hard to get paid for making a positive impact in people’s lives. Externalities are generally flipped - positive ones are created for society, yet builders don’t share in them.
(h/t Emily Casey)
What if we could connect the two? If economies had a heart and a conscience and our economists were schooled in biology and ecology not just maths and physics. If community creators were able to benefit in part of the upside for the good they were doing in the world.
My last decade has been spent mostly on the community building side of the equation, building an idea into a global network of thousands of innovators in 100+ cities around the world sourcing and supporting tech startups and breakthrough projects in healthy ageing. My personal economics has come mostly from consulting, and while there has been some overlap it’s still mostly oil and water. Along the way I’ve observed many friends and colleagues (in particular from business school) who took a more traditional economy-first route, start to question their path and search for more connection with what matters. Inequality, instability and multifaceted institutional, political and climate wretchedness means the status quo has got to go.
In the coming weeks I’ll lay out some of the lessons learned during a decade of building a global innovation community, and what I’m now seeing about how - thanks to things like Web3, DAOs, tokenomics and mutualism - the worlds of community and economy are becoming increasingly, and excitingly, enmeshed.
The way to go
Stephen, I am likewise obsessed with this idea. Look forward to your thoughts!