Re: [Silk] Exploring pop-up villages: A hello from Berlin

[Thaths via Silklist]

On Thu, Nov 7, 2024 at 7:45 AM Suresh Ramasubramanian via Silklist <
silklist@lists.digeratus.in> wrote:

> The last popup city I heard of was an attempt to recreate Galt’s Gulch,
> and that failed beause of .. bears.
>
>
>
> Sometimes it is just the case that everywhere that is habitable to any
> extent is already inhabited, and to a much larger extent depending on just
> how habitable a place is (all the usual factors, employment, public
> transport, schools and what not in the area).
>

Back when I lived in Australia, on road trips I would drive through these
hollowed out towns in the interior (The Bush). They were once thriving
towns populated with hundreds of people with a town center, but have become
reduced (through a crash in some extractive economic activity, de-growth of
population, or urban migration) to populations ranging from zero to a dozen
people.

A small handful of them have, in recent years, become revitalised with
refugees/immigrants moving in (starting ethnic grocery stores, restaurants,
schools, doing service jobs, )

I can imagine such a town being an ideal location for a pop-up village.

Thaths


>
>
> Where would such a popup city be located and how / where is it going to
> exist in a vacuum?   Outside an old west, Ayn Rand or Heinlein story, that
> is.
>
>
>
> --srs
>
>
>
> *From: *Silklist 
> on behalf of Huda Masood via Silklist 
> *Date: *Thursday, 7 November 2024 at 8:42 PM
> *To: *Intelligent conversation 
> *Cc: *Huda Masood 
> *Subject: *Re: [Silk] Exploring pop-up villages: A hello from Berlin
>
> I forgot to reply to this :)
>
> Guten Tag zurück aus Bonn!
>
>  Your email made me reach out to another friend/now acquaintance who was
> interested in designing Life - for himself and others. It morphed into
> another monster altogether but his vision remains the same.
>
> I'm intrigued by the idea of 'building weak ties' (see reference to
> friend/now acquaintance above). And ALLFED sounds very very cool. I hope
> you are thriving and happy there.
>
> After reading the links you provided and the questions you asked, I'm left
> with a vague sense of unease - one that makes this feel cultish. I would
> like to sit with this feeling to analyze why I am uneasy. Bryan Johnson and
> his Bloodboy, referenced in part by Vitalik in the Zuzalu article, play a
> large part. Cults get a bad rep, we're all cultish to some extent. But this
> set off alarm bells.
>
>
> Tell me, what do you want to be made possible with pop up cities like
> this? What impact would snowball in 5, 10, 20 years to make a change that
> sprouted from a pop up city?
>
> I ride motorcycles for pleasure and travel extensively with them,
> sometimes with bigger groups and sometimes as solo as solo can get. I
> notice that bigger groups consume tremendous amounts of resources, wield a
> disproportionate chunk of negotiating and buying power and leave a mess in
> their wake for the people, who live in the space long term, to clean up.
> Maybe it's just motorcyclists. Or buses full of tourists. Or .. what the
> Goans are currently groaning about the influx of the part time Delhi and
> Noida population that skewed economics for the native populations.
>
> Thank you for the mental workout :)
>
> Ich freue mich, von dir wieder zu hören.
>
> Huda
>
> On Thu, 24 Oct 2024 at 13:45, Yeshodhara B via Silklist <
> silklist@lists.digeratus.in> wrote:
>
> Hello fellow Silklisters, (not sure if that is the right name, but has a
> nice ring to it)
>
> Guten Tag!
> It’s an absolute pleasure to be here and part of this awesome community.
> Thank you for having me here Udhay :)
>
> A quick intro—I'm Yesh. I was born in Bangalore, but Berlin is home now.
> I'm someone who's pro-humanity and a techno-optimist but with a dash of
> healthy pessimism (keeps things interesting!). I’m constantly asking: how
> do we help humanity not just survive, but truly thrive in the long term?
>
> By day, I work as a project manager at ALLFED , where
> we focus on global food resilience (preparing for events that could take
> out 10% or more of the global food supply—think nuclear winter or other fun
> apocalyptic scenarios). By night, I channel my engineering and physics
> background into designing hyper-stable structures for satellite
>  applications.
>
> For the past 8 months, I’ve been working on something a bit more
> experimental and communal—ZuGrama . It’s a pop-up
> village in India that I’m co-building with another fellow Silklister, Dr.
> Anish Mohammed. Think of it as a place where the world’s brightest
> minds—scientists, engineers, cryptographers, builders—don’t just work
> together but live together, collaborate deeply, and push the boundaries of
> what’s possible. It’s inspired by Zuzalu
>  (which
> Vitalik Buterin kicked off), and it pulls from Balaji’s concept of network
> states. It f

Re: [Silk] Exploring pop-up villages: A hello from Berlin

[Suresh Ramasubramanian via Silklist]

But without an actual reason for so many people to move in there, it becomes 
all make work.  Remember the old story where someone hands the only hotelier in 
such a town a hundred dollar bill, he passes the bill on to the grocer to clear 
his debt there, the grocer passes it on to some other tradesman, so on and 
forth till finally the hotelier ends up with his $100 back in his hands and 
meanwhile the entire town has become debt free.

--srs

From: Thaths 
Date: Thursday, 7 November 2024 at 10:11 PM
To: Intelligent conversation 
Cc: Suresh Ramasubramanian 
Subject: Re: [Silk] Exploring pop-up villages: A hello from Berlin
On Thu, Nov 7, 2024 at 7:45 AM Suresh Ramasubramanian via Silklist 
mailto:silklist@lists.digeratus.in>> wrote:
The last popup city I heard of was an attempt to recreate Galt’s Gulch, and 
that failed beause of .. bears.

Sometimes it is just the case that everywhere that is habitable to any extent 
is already inhabited, and to a much larger extent depending on just how 
habitable a place is (all the usual factors, employment, public transport, 
schools and what not in the area).

Back when I lived in Australia, on road trips I would drive through these 
hollowed out towns in the interior (The Bush). They were once thriving towns 
populated with hundreds of people with a town center, but have become reduced 
(through a crash in some extractive economic activity, de-growth of population, 
or urban migration) to populations ranging from zero to a dozen people.

A small handful of them have, in recent years, become revitalised with 
refugees/immigrants moving in (starting ethnic grocery stores, restaurants, 
schools, doing service jobs, )

I can imagine such a town being an ideal location for a pop-up village.

Thaths


Where would such a popup city be located and how / where is it going to exist 
in a vacuum?   Outside an old west, Ayn Rand or Heinlein story, that is.

--srs

From: Silklist 
mailto:hserus@lists.digeratus.in>>
 on behalf of Huda Masood via Silklist 
mailto:silklist@lists.digeratus.in>>
Date: Thursday, 7 November 2024 at 8:42 PM
To: Intelligent conversation 
mailto:silklist@lists.digeratus.in>>
Cc: Huda Masood mailto:hudamas...@gmail.com>>
Subject: Re: [Silk] Exploring pop-up villages: A hello from Berlin
I forgot to reply to this :)

Guten Tag zurück aus Bonn!

 Your email made me reach out to another friend/now acquaintance who was 
interested in designing Life - for himself and others. It morphed into another 
monster altogether but his vision remains the same.

I'm intrigued by the idea of 'building weak ties' (see reference to friend/now 
acquaintance above). And ALLFED sounds very very cool. I hope you are thriving 
and happy there.

After reading the links you provided and the questions you asked, I'm left with 
a vague sense of unease - one that makes this feel cultish. I would like to sit 
with this feeling to analyze why I am uneasy. Bryan Johnson and his Bloodboy, 
referenced in part by Vitalik in the Zuzalu article, play a large part. Cults 
get a bad rep, we're all cultish to some extent. But this set off alarm bells.

Tell me, what do you want to be made possible with pop up cities like this? 
What impact would snowball in 5, 10, 20 years to make a change that sprouted 
from a pop up city?

I ride motorcycles for pleasure and travel extensively with them, sometimes 
with bigger groups and sometimes as solo as solo can get. I notice that bigger 
groups consume tremendous amounts of resources, wield a disproportionate chunk 
of negotiating and buying power and leave a mess in their wake for the people, 
who live in the space long term, to clean up. Maybe it's just motorcyclists. Or 
buses full of tourists. Or .. what the Goans are currently groaning about the 
influx of the part time Delhi and Noida population that skewed economics for 
the native populations.

Thank you for the mental workout :)

Ich freue mich, von dir wieder zu hören.

Huda
On Thu, 24 Oct 2024 at 13:45, Yeshodhara B via Silklist 
mailto:silklist@lists.digeratus.in>> wrote:

Hello fellow Silklisters, (not sure if that is the right name, but has a nice 
ring to it)

Guten Tag!
It’s an absolute pleasure to be here and part of this awesome community. Thank 
you for having me here Udhay :)

A quick intro—I'm Yesh. I was born in Bangalore, but Berlin is home now. I'm 
someone who's pro-humanity and a techno-optimist but with a dash of healthy 
pessimism (keeps things interesting!). I’m constantly asking: how do we help 
humanity not just survive, but truly thrive in the long term?

By day, I work as a project manager at ALLFED, where we 
focus on global food resilience (preparing for events that could take out 10% 
or more of the global food supply—think nuclear winter or other fun apocalyptic 
scenarios). By night, I channel my engineering and physics background into 
designing hyper-stable structures for 
satellite ap

Re: [Silk] Exploring pop-up villages: A hello from Berlin

[Yeshodhara B via Silklist]

Thank you all, it is inspiring to see that it's evoking these wonderful
questions, comments, and thoughts.

The hypothesis we have for the Indian experiment, ZuGrama, is this: When
you bring a "Dunbar" number of people (~150 people, maybe it is different
for India) together, to co-live and co-build, there is an emergent
phenomenon–we think one of it could be 'Ambition' / 'Aspiration'.

what do you want to be made possible with pop up cities like this? What
> impact would snowball in 5, 10, 20 years to make a change that sprouted
> from a pop up city?


I think that these pop-up villages could be a new way to,
- enable innovation.
- not just blind innovation but also to support work that will help
humanity avoid getting into locked-in states
.
- live a healthy life.
- play a different game. (I think, in India, the fundamental levers for
innovation have a game theoretic angle to it

.)

In this first iteration, we just want to bring these important
conversations to India, creating opportunities for people to engage with
some of the best minds across different technologies and philosophies. We
are trying to design the space where the probability of having an
interesting conversation every time you bump into your neighbor in the
pop-up, could be really high. Imagine it as Silklist-y type conversations
but offline and in-person for 6-weeks.

Also, I do not completely align with Balaji's defn of Network States,
mainly due to its emphasis on "founders" – maybe that's why it comes off as
a bit cultish. At ZuGrama, we want to soon have this completely
decentralized. Although, we are starting centralized with a few "founders",
we are developing a strategy for community exit soon. We prefer the term
"initiators" to "founders".


On Thu, Nov 7, 2024 at 11:47 PM Suresh Ramasubramanian via Silklist <
silklist@lists.digeratus.in> wrote:

> But without an actual reason for so many people to move in there, it
> becomes all make work.  Remember the old story where someone hands the only
> hotelier in such a town a hundred dollar bill, he passes the bill on to the
> grocer to clear his debt there, the grocer passes it on to some other
> tradesman, so on and forth till finally the hotelier ends up with his $100
> back in his hands and meanwhile the entire town has become debt free.
>
>
>
> --srs
>
>
>
> *From: *Thaths 
> *Date: *Thursday, 7 November 2024 at 10:11 PM
> *To: *Intelligent conversation 
> *Cc: *Suresh Ramasubramanian 
> *Subject: *Re: [Silk] Exploring pop-up villages: A hello from Berlin
>
> On Thu, Nov 7, 2024 at 7:45 AM Suresh Ramasubramanian via Silklist <
> silklist@lists.digeratus.in> wrote:
>
> The last popup city I heard of was an attempt to recreate Galt’s Gulch,
> and that failed beause of .. bears.
>
>
>
> Sometimes it is just the case that everywhere that is habitable to any
> extent is already inhabited, and to a much larger extent depending on just
> how habitable a place is (all the usual factors, employment, public
> transport, schools and what not in the area).
>
>
>
> Back when I lived in Australia, on road trips I would drive through these
> hollowed out towns in the interior (The Bush). They were once thriving
> towns populated with hundreds of people with a town center, but have become
> reduced (through a crash in some extractive economic activity, de-growth of
> population, or urban migration) to populations ranging from zero to a dozen
> people.
>
>
>
> A small handful of them have, in recent years, become revitalised with
> refugees/immigrants moving in (starting ethnic grocery stores, restaurants,
> schools, doing service jobs, )
>
>
>
> I can imagine such a town being an ideal location for a pop-up village.
>
>
>
> Thaths
>
>
>
>
>
> Where would such a popup city be located and how / where is it going to
> exist in a vacuum?   Outside an old west, Ayn Rand or Heinlein story, that
> is.
>
>
>
> --srs
>
>
>
> *From: *Silklist 
> on behalf of Huda Masood via Silklist 
> *Date: *Thursday, 7 November 2024 at 8:42 PM
> *To: *Intelligent conversation 
> *Cc: *Huda Masood 
> *Subject: *Re: [Silk] Exploring pop-up villages: A hello from Berlin
>
> I forgot to reply to this :)
>
> Guten Tag zurück aus Bonn!
>
>  Your email made me reach out to another friend/now acquaintance who was
> interested in designing Life - for himself and others. It morphed into
> another monster altogether but his vision remains the same.
>
> I'm intrigued by the idea of 'building weak ties' (see reference to
> friend/now acquaintance above). And ALLFED sounds very very cool. I hope
> you are thriving and happy there.
>
> After reading the links you provided and the questions you asked, I'm left
> with a vague sense of unease - one that makes this feel cultish. I would
> like to sit with this feeling to analyze why I am uneasy. Bryan Joh

Re: [Silk] Exploring pop-up villages: A hello from Berlin

[Suresh Ramasubramanian via Silklist]

The last popup city I heard of was an attempt to recreate Galt’s Gulch, and 
that failed beause of .. bears.

Sometimes it is just the case that everywhere that is habitable to any extent 
is already inhabited, and to a much larger extent depending on just how 
habitable a place is (all the usual factors, employment, public transport, 
schools and what not in the area).

Where would such a popup city be located and how / where is it going to exist 
in a vacuum?   Outside an old west, Ayn Rand or Heinlein story, that is.

--srs

From: Silklist  on 
behalf of Huda Masood via Silklist 
Date: Thursday, 7 November 2024 at 8:42 PM
To: Intelligent conversation 
Cc: Huda Masood 
Subject: Re: [Silk] Exploring pop-up villages: A hello from Berlin
I forgot to reply to this :)

Guten Tag zurück aus Bonn!

 Your email made me reach out to another friend/now acquaintance who was 
interested in designing Life - for himself and others. It morphed into another 
monster altogether but his vision remains the same.

I'm intrigued by the idea of 'building weak ties' (see reference to friend/now 
acquaintance above). And ALLFED sounds very very cool. I hope you are thriving 
and happy there.

After reading the links you provided and the questions you asked, I'm left with 
a vague sense of unease - one that makes this feel cultish. I would like to sit 
with this feeling to analyze why I am uneasy. Bryan Johnson and his Bloodboy, 
referenced in part by Vitalik in the Zuzalu article, play a large part. Cults 
get a bad rep, we're all cultish to some extent. But this set off alarm bells.

Tell me, what do you want to be made possible with pop up cities like this? 
What impact would snowball in 5, 10, 20 years to make a change that sprouted 
from a pop up city?

I ride motorcycles for pleasure and travel extensively with them, sometimes 
with bigger groups and sometimes as solo as solo can get. I notice that bigger 
groups consume tremendous amounts of resources, wield a disproportionate chunk 
of negotiating and buying power and leave a mess in their wake for the people, 
who live in the space long term, to clean up. Maybe it's just motorcyclists. Or 
buses full of tourists. Or .. what the Goans are currently groaning about the 
influx of the part time Delhi and Noida population that skewed economics for 
the native populations.

Thank you for the mental workout :)

Ich freue mich, von dir wieder zu hören.

Huda
On Thu, 24 Oct 2024 at 13:45, Yeshodhara B via Silklist 
mailto:silklist@lists.digeratus.in>> wrote:

Hello fellow Silklisters, (not sure if that is the right name, but has a nice 
ring to it)

Guten Tag!
It’s an absolute pleasure to be here and part of this awesome community. Thank 
you for having me here Udhay :)

A quick intro—I'm Yesh. I was born in Bangalore, but Berlin is home now. I'm 
someone who's pro-humanity and a techno-optimist but with a dash of healthy 
pessimism (keeps things interesting!). I’m constantly asking: how do we help 
humanity not just survive, but truly thrive in the long term?

By day, I work as a project manager at ALLFED, where we 
focus on global food resilience (preparing for events that could take out 10% 
or more of the global food supply—think nuclear winter or other fun apocalyptic 
scenarios). By night, I channel my engineering and physics background into 
designing hyper-stable structures for 
satellite applications.

For the past 8 months, I’ve been working on something a bit more experimental 
and communal—ZuGrama. It’s a pop-up village in India that 
I’m co-building with another fellow Silklister, Dr. Anish Mohammed. Think of it 
as a place where the world’s brightest minds—scientists, engineers, 
cryptographers, builders—don’t just work together but live together, 
collaborate deeply, and push the boundaries of what’s possible. It’s inspired 
by Zuzalu (which 
Vitalik Buterin kicked off), and it pulls from Balaji’s concept of network 
states. It feels like the right time for these kinds of experiments, with 
similar projects popping up in other corners of the world — 
1, 2.

What are your thoughts on pop-up villages or these “networked state” concepts? 
Do they excite you? If you could be part of one, what kind of experiences would 
you want to have?

Looking forward to diving into some awesome conversations with you all!

Best, Yesh
--
Silklist mailing list
Silklist@lists.digeratus.in
https://mailman.panix.com/listinfo.cgi/silklist


--
Huda Masood
+91 9886796967
-- 
Silklist mailing list
Silklist@lists.digeratus.in
https://mailman.panix.com/listinfo.cgi/silklist

Re: [Silk] Exploring pop-up villages: A hello from Berlin

[Huda Masood via Silklist]

I forgot to reply to this :)

Guten Tag zurück aus Bonn!

 Your email made me reach out to another friend/now acquaintance who was
interested in designing Life - for himself and others. It morphed into
another monster altogether but his vision remains the same.

I'm intrigued by the idea of 'building weak ties' (see reference to
friend/now acquaintance above). And ALLFED sounds very very cool. I hope
you are thriving and happy there.

After reading the links you provided and the questions you asked, I'm left
with a vague sense of unease - one that makes this feel cultish. I would
like to sit with this feeling to analyze why I am uneasy. Bryan Johnson and
his Bloodboy, referenced in part by Vitalik in the Zuzalu article, play a
large part. Cults get a bad rep, we're all cultish to some extent. But this
set off alarm bells.

Tell me, what do you want to be made possible with pop up cities like this?
What impact would snowball in 5, 10, 20 years to make a change that
sprouted from a pop up city?

I ride motorcycles for pleasure and travel extensively with them, sometimes
with bigger groups and sometimes as solo as solo can get. I notice that
bigger groups consume tremendous amounts of resources, wield a
disproportionate chunk of negotiating and buying power and leave a mess in
their wake for the people, who live in the space long term, to clean up.
Maybe it's just motorcyclists. Or buses full of tourists. Or .. what the
Goans are currently groaning about the influx of the part time Delhi and
Noida population that skewed economics for the native populations.

Thank you for the mental workout :)

Ich freue mich, von dir wieder zu hören.

Huda

On Thu, 24 Oct 2024 at 13:45, Yeshodhara B via Silklist <
silklist@lists.digeratus.in> wrote:

> Hello fellow Silklisters, (not sure if that is the right name, but has a
> nice ring to it)
>
> Guten Tag!
> It’s an absolute pleasure to be here and part of this awesome community.
> Thank you for having me here Udhay :)
>
> A quick intro—I'm Yesh. I was born in Bangalore, but Berlin is home now.
> I'm someone who's pro-humanity and a techno-optimist but with a dash of
> healthy pessimism (keeps things interesting!). I’m constantly asking: how
> do we help humanity not just survive, but truly thrive in the long term?
>
> By day, I work as a project manager at ALLFED , where
> we focus on global food resilience (preparing for events that could take
> out 10% or more of the global food supply—think nuclear winter or other fun
> apocalyptic scenarios). By night, I channel my engineering and physics
> background into designing hyper-stable structures for satellite
>  applications.
>
> For the past 8 months, I’ve been working on something a bit more
> experimental and communal—ZuGrama . It’s a pop-up
> village in India that I’m co-building with another fellow Silklister, Dr.
> Anish Mohammed. Think of it as a place where the world’s brightest
> minds—scientists, engineers, cryptographers, builders—don’t just work
> together but live together, collaborate deeply, and push the boundaries of
> what’s possible. It’s inspired by Zuzalu
>  (which
> Vitalik Buterin kicked off), and it pulls from Balaji’s concept of network
> states. It feels like the right time for these kinds of experiments, with
> similar projects popping up in other corners of the world — 1
> , 2 .
>
> What are your thoughts on pop-up villages or these “networked state”
> concepts? Do they excite you? If you could be part of one, what kind of
> experiences would you want to have?
>
> Looking forward to diving into some awesome conversations with you all!
>
> Best, Yesh
> --
> Silklist mailing list
> Silklist@lists.digeratus.in
> https://mailman.panix.com/listinfo.cgi/silklist
>


-- 
Huda Masood
+91 9886796967
-- 
Silklist mailing list
Silklist@lists.digeratus.in
https://mailman.panix.com/listinfo.cgi/silklist

[Silk] Founding (and letting go / handing over) passion projects

[Peter Griffin via Silklist]

On Thu, 7 Nov 2024, 23:43 Yeshodhara B via Silklist, <
silklist@lists.digeratus.in> wrote:

>
> Also, I do not completely align with Balaji's defn of Network States,
> mainly due to its emphasis on "founders" – maybe that's why it comes off as
> a bit cultish. At ZuGrama, we want to soon have this completely
> decentralized. Although, we are starting centralized with a few "founders",
> we are developing a strategy for community exit soon. We prefer the term
> "initiators" to "founders".
>

Taking off at a tangent from Yeshodhara’s post, hence a different subject
line.

tl;dr: Advice on finding and growing groups / collectives.

(Yeah, sorry, this has wound up being much longer than the thought with
which I started writing. But thank you Yeshodhara for giving me something
to think about and write down.)

This is for those of you who have started / founded / initiated projects
that are not commercial, things you’ve done in time borrowed from the day
job, family, social life, recreation, for no other reason but that you
thought they were good things to do — and there are many of you here — I’m
interested in your experiences in finding people to take the baton.

I ask because I have started a few things over the years. Most of them were
collaborative in some form. That is, they required other folk to
participate for them to work. Collectives would be a good word, similar, in
that respect, to Silk List.

Some of these became reasonably popular. From which I can assume that
respectable numbers of other people thought they were good things to be
part of too. They have been enriching things for me as well: growth in
skills, a wee public profile, wide and varied networks. (And literally
enriching too, not from making money off them, but in getting me income
opportunities from adjacent things.) I have been, I think, careful in
nurturing them, learning, through trial and many errors, how to run them,
set guidelines that clarify purpose while not being too restrictive.

But I’ve always had a problem in trying to get other people to take things
over. Many are happy to help, but not to take over or even take large
responsibilities. Which means that I wind up having to be the moving force
behind them. (None of them are so popular or have as fervent followers as a
cult would, I hasten to say, and nobody takes me seriously enough to be a
proper guru, alas.)

Of course, since I am the common factor, it has occurred to me that
something in the way I do these things may be sending out the signal that I
don’t want to let go. And the world is full of examples of founders who
refused to step down or even build and grow the next leaders. But I do want
to. Perhaps it is vanity that wants these things to continue once age,
health, finances, or other interests make it harder for me to continue. I
also am not, by any stretch of even the most generous imagination, a good
conventional manager or leader. But I do genuinely think they are good
things to do.

So, good people, do share experiences and wisdom gained?

Thanks for reading all this!

~ peter

>
-- 
Silklist mailing list
Silklist@lists.digeratus.in
https://mailman.panix.com/listinfo.cgi/silklist

Re: [Silk] Founding (and letting go / handing over) passion projects

[Suresh Ramasubramanian via Silklist]

Sometimes the way around this is to just expand the leadership AND have regular 
/ annual elections (which would coincide with dinner + beer potlucks)

So you have a division of labour (for free, mind you, so that only committed 
volunteers with an actual interest in the project will step up) and moreover 
there is a continuous influx of new blood and the responsibility passes from 
past office bearers so it isn’t a years long strain on their work life balance.


From: Silklist  on 
behalf of Ameya Nagarajan via Silklist 
Date: Friday, 8 November 2024 at 10:23 AM
To: Intelligent conversation 
Cc: Ameya Nagarajan 
Subject: Re: [Silk] Founding (and letting go / handing over) passion projects
I think one thing that happens esp with passion projects (used this as 
shorthand for this kind of thing) is that the founders struggle to let the 
project change. While others might share a large overlap of your passion behind 
the project, it's not full. and it's hard to let go while still at the helm.I 
feel that if the people originally driving it start to open it to change while 
still driving, someone else will automatically rise up and be ready to take 
over.


Cordially,
Ameya Nagarajan
(she/her)

[Image removed by sender.]


On Fri, 8 Nov 2024 at 09:37, Udhay Shankar N via Silklist 
mailto:silklist@lists.digeratus.in>> wrote:
On Fri, Nov 8, 2024 at 8:01 AM Peter Griffin via Silklist 
mailto:silklist@lists.digeratus.in>> wrote:

But I’ve always had a problem in trying to get other people to take things 
over. Many are happy to help, but not to take over or even take large 
responsibilities. Which means that I wind up having to be the moving force 
behind them. (None of them are so popular or have as fervent followers as a 
cult would, I hasten to say, and nobody takes me seriously enough to be a 
proper guru, alas.)

While I think through an answer to the original question, I thought I'd share a 
couple of related experiences I have had:

I've been part of many communities as a founding member over the years, and a 
couple of experiences of change of guard come to mind:

- One, where I was part of a small group of people who helped found what 
eventually became a very large volunteer-driven community, had me withdrawing 
because the internal politics had become toxic. So it wasn't a case of "Can you 
take my place?" but more like "I'm out, it's all yours now".

- Two, where I was left to run an online group by default when the founding 
member walked away.

I'm being intentionally vague here because both examples above are known to 
members here, and have the potential to become arguments which I don't have the 
bandwidth for at this time. :)

Udhay

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Re: [Silk] Founding (and letting go / handing over) passion projects

[Ameya Nagarajan via Silklist]

I think one thing that happens esp with passion projects (used this as
shorthand for this kind of thing) is that the founders struggle to let the
project change. While others might share a large overlap of your passion
behind the project, it's not full. and it's hard to let go while still at
the helm.I feel that if the people originally driving it start to open it
to change while still driving, someone else will automatically rise up and
be ready to take over.


Cordially,
Ameya Nagarajan
(she/her)







On Fri, 8 Nov 2024 at 09:37, Udhay Shankar N via Silklist <
silklist@lists.digeratus.in> wrote:

> On Fri, Nov 8, 2024 at 8:01 AM Peter Griffin via Silklist <
> silklist@lists.digeratus.in> wrote:
>
> But I’ve always had a problem in trying to get other people to take things
>> over. Many are happy to help, but not to take over or even take large
>> responsibilities. Which means that I wind up having to be the moving force
>> behind them. (None of them are so popular or have as fervent followers as a
>> cult would, I hasten to say, and nobody takes me seriously enough to be a
>> proper guru, alas.)
>>
>
> While I think through an answer to the original question, I thought I'd
> share a couple of related experiences I have had:
>
> I've been part of many communities as a founding member over the years,
> and a couple of experiences of change of guard come to mind:
>
> - One, where I was part of a small group of people who helped found what
> eventually became a very large volunteer-driven community, had me
> withdrawing because the internal politics had become toxic. So it wasn't a
> case of "Can you take my place?" but more like "I'm out, it's all yours
> now".
>
> - Two, where I was left to run an online group by default when the
> founding member walked away.
>
> I'm being intentionally vague here because both examples above are known
> to members here, and have the potential to become arguments which I don't
> have the bandwidth for at this time. :)
>
> Udhay
>
> --
>
> ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
>
> --
> Silklist mailing list
> Silklist@lists.digeratus.in
> https://mailman.panix.com/listinfo.cgi/silklist
>
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Re: [Silk] Founding (and letting go / handing over) passion projects

[Udhay Shankar N via Silklist]

On Fri, Nov 8, 2024 at 8:01 AM Peter Griffin via Silklist <
silklist@lists.digeratus.in> wrote:

But I’ve always had a problem in trying to get other people to take things
> over. Many are happy to help, but not to take over or even take large
> responsibilities. Which means that I wind up having to be the moving force
> behind them. (None of them are so popular or have as fervent followers as a
> cult would, I hasten to say, and nobody takes me seriously enough to be a
> proper guru, alas.)
>

While I think through an answer to the original question, I thought I'd
share a couple of related experiences I have had:

I've been part of many communities as a founding member over the years, and
a couple of experiences of change of guard come to mind:

- One, where I was part of a small group of people who helped found what
eventually became a very large volunteer-driven community, had me
withdrawing because the internal politics had become toxic. So it wasn't a
case of "Can you take my place?" but more like "I'm out, it's all yours
now".

- Two, where I was left to run an online group by default when the founding
member walked away.

I'm being intentionally vague here because both examples above are known to
members here, and have the potential to become arguments which I don't have
the bandwidth for at this time. :)

Udhay

-- 

((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
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