Thread by @RhysLindmark

1/ I'm excited to share a piece I've been working on for 3 months:

"We Need To Talk: Marriage Counseling with Capitalism Itself"

I'm proud of it! One review:

"It is SO good. I hope with all my heart that is the direction we are going towards."

Thread👇
rhyslindmark.com/marriage-couns…

2/The premise is funny—Humanity, Capitalism, and Post-Capitalism are in relationship therapy.

Their problem:
-Humanity has outgrown Capitalism
-But Humanity doesn't know what Post-Capitalism looks like

They focus on 4 pillars of post-cap through dialogue, VR, and illustrations.

3/ The four pillars of post-capitalism:

BENTOISM: Zooming out to care about each other and the planet
GENEROSITY: Many of us have enough and can give back
COHERENT PLURALISM: Looking at issues from every angle
NETWORKISM: The rise of internet-enabled decentralized networks

4/ Mindset #1 is Bentoism (created by @ystrickler!):

Bentoism is a way to understand our *needs*.

This is similar to Pixar's Inside Out, where they represent *emotions*.

5/ Bentoism is a 2x2 for needs.

- NOW ME: Basic needs like hunger and safety.
- FUTURE ME: Long-term personal needs like meaning.
- NOW US: Our collective need for connection.
- FUTURE US: Sustainability and the long-term needs of humanity.

6/ Society needs to shift from focusing on Now Me to focusing more on Future Us.

Many of us have met basic needs and can now devote resources to Future Us needs like addressing climate change.

7/ Like the emotions in Inside Out, we can imagine "looking inside" Humanity to find our needs:

8/ Mindset #2 is Generosity and Abundance.

We explore this through VR—an Abundant Walk. We realize daily examples of abundance like Little Free Libraries and free stuff on Craigslist.

We also explore protoexamples of future abundance, like credit cards that give 1% to the 🌏.

9/ Here's how Capitalism uses their local Little Free Library 😂

10/ In the second Abundance VR, a young girl Navi explores the inherent nature of two types of resources.

- Positive-sum resources

and

- Zero-sum resources

11/ She explores the positive-sum resources of trust, money, and information.

For the these, Navi’s life choices are easy: create as much trust as possible, give money back, and share information freely.

12/ She also explores the zero-sum resources of status, attention, and power.

These resources are relative by nature, so we can't make them abundant. Instead, we should strive for a balanced distribution:

- Status Well Allocated
- Attention Well Spent
- Power Well Distributed

13/ Mindset #3 is Coherent Pluralism (h/t @jim_rutt).

We should strive for many mindsets (Pluralism) while having clarity (Coherence).

It's part of growing up (see VR image):
-First, we're given a lens in childhood
-Then we realize it's a lens
-And finally we have many lenses

14/ Two other thoughts on Coherent Pluralism (CP):

- We should have a CP mindset on these mindsets. Don't take them as gospel. But don't reject them outright.
- Given networks and the zero marginal cost of info, we should use CP to do individual sensemaking (red feed/blue feed)

15/ Finally, Mindset #4 is Networkism.

Networkism is the idea that new digital networks will out-compete old centralized institutions.

In this VR, we watch them battle for dominance:
- Old, centralized institutions (red) vs.
- New, digital decentralized networks (blue)

16/ In the end, decentralized networks win.

"Institutions that we co-created with capitalism have been diminished. Networks that were co-created with post-capitalism are here to stay."

17/ One of the reasons why they win is that networks can embody new mindsets quicker than old institutions.

So Networkism is BOTH:
- The idea that networks will win
AND
- The idea that the 4 mindsets will be manifest in networks

18/ e.g. People on the internet talking about how the internet is great. 😂

19/ But the VR doesn't just have institutions *fighting* with networks. They *dance* too.

The goal is not for one to "win". Societal coordination mechanisms are means. They're good at different things.

The church, the nation-state, and networks can co-exist.

20/ In the conclusion of the piece, Humanity shares that they'd like to continue trying to make things work with Capitalism and Post-Capitalism.

To build the 4 pillars together. (To parent Humanity's Future Me.)

21/ But Humanity also realizes that Cap and Post-Cap are just a shared story.

Even the idea of Humanity is just metaphor, not a thing that spans the entire earth.

Humanity speaks to the reader: "There’s just you, the reader, sitting at home and reading this on a screen. Alone."

22/ And yet, Humanity tells us:

"Even though you’re alone, you can co-create shared stories for a positive future. I don’t care whether we call it capitalism, or post-capitalism, or The Thing That Happens After We Grow The Fuck Up or whatever."

23/

"I hope you strive for immense progress, while celebrating the small wins.

Thanks for reading, and good luck."

24/ Hope you enjoy the piece. (Open the link if you haven't yet!) And if you're into video, here's @david_perell interviewing me for 60min about it

25/ Thanks to all who helped create it ❤️:

Thanks to Audra Jacobi for illustrations and my bro @lindmarkjohn for design.

26/ Thanks to the Write of Passage cohort: @OshanJarow, @packyM, @josephcwells, @adriennetran, @realJessyLin. Special thanks to @_Suthen and @david_perell for organizing it.

Check out everyone's essays here! perell.com/fellowship/ove…

27/ Finally, thanks to various other friends for giving feedback throughout:

@ani_pai, @fake_segal, @ntnsndr, @neha, @ystrickler, @yayaxzhang, @utotranslucence, and @jim_rutt.

28/ There's a lot of depth that I wasn't able to fit into the piece.

e.g.
- Networkism is ontology (what is happening?)
- Coherent Pluralism is epistemology (how do we know?)
- Bentoism is ethics (what is good?)

Please DM if you'd like to help us apply these ideas.

29/ Or check out, e.g. how these ideas show up in our response to COVID. (A recent video I did with The Stoa.)

Btw, @waitbutwhy, a lot of folks have said this article is "Tim Urban-esque". I think you might enjoy it!