#87: Going Virtual, Remote Work, Gift Economy
😎 Our world is shifting, lets figure out what matters
March 21st: Greetings from Las Palmas. We are in Spain for the next several weeks, likely more. We have a good living situation and are able to stay here indefinitely with the support of our host.
As someone that’s been working remotely and living with uncertainty for the past couple of years, this week was a wild mix of emotion. I’ve been energized by a burst of creativity and spent a lot of time writing and dumping what I know about working & engaging online out of my brain into the public domain (see those links below). I’m feeling so much love and connection after video chatting with more people this week than I have in the past few months.
Finally, I’m feeling deep sadness and compassion for the world right now. I’m very lucky to be in a good place right now, but many people are not as secure. I’m trying to stay in the moment and see things as they come, not get too caught up in the news and look for ways to be generous where I can.
Since I’m locked down in Spain for a while, I set up some daily office hours to talk about anything work or personal, grab some time here.
#1 Going Virtual Every Week…Join Us
I co-hosted an event this week with Jonny Miller which explored “radical curiosity” and was an incredible space where people showed up and wanted to hang out. It was a beautiful virtual gathering where I sensed that many people just wanted to “hang out” with others without an agenda.
If you want to check out the beginning of the conversation you can check it out here:
I’m likely just going to run with these weekly for the next month or so until something changes. It seems like the smallest thing I can offer.
📆 Next Meetup: May 25th @ 1pm PST / 4pm EST / 8pm GMT
💻 I'm hosting another virtual gathering with philosopher Andrew Taggart. We'll explore how people might be experiencing "existential drift" and what role work has in this time and place, the role of mindfulness during the crisis and how to think about navigating a life of uncertainty.
🙏 You can read more and register here
Suggested "pre-reads":
- Why does work dominate our life?
- His Tedx Talk on Total Work
- His conversation with Oshan Jarrow
Let me know if you’d like to collaborate on a future session#2 Virtual Facilitation
A friend asked me to write up some tips for facilitating virtual groups. Here is a comprehensive overview of ten tips on facilitating remote groups and communities.
👉 💻 Facilitating Virtual Spaces
#3 Remote Work With Laurel Farrer
👂 Podcast Links: Apple | Overcast | Spotify | Google
If you find out about anyone’s work on remote work, let it be Laurel Farrer’s. She’s been a consultant for several years and a remote team leader for longer. We had a conversation about the deeper principles about remote work.
Definitely give it a watch if your company has “gone remote” for the first time.
#4 Cash Drops, Gift Economy & Supporting Gig Workers
I have a sense that spaces and behaviors are going to shift rapidly over the next six months. Already I am seeing people abandoning the default mode of engaging in a transaction economy and looking for ways to contribute.
With this, I suggest people explore ideas around “gift economies.” I’ve been experimenting with this mode of being in my work for the last three years. My essay on the gift economy is a good place to start but I also recommend Charle’s Eisenstein’s book Sacred Economics.
At the end, I’ve updated the section where I call for independent creators to share their work or nominate others/organizations that people can support in this time.
Governments are about to unload the biggest cash transfer experiment and I’m fascinated to see what kind of emergent behaviors emerge. I imagine there may be some not so positive views on this kind of transfer, especially if it is not universal. If you are interested, you might want to check out the three sacred beliefs holding back basic income which provides some context of why these cash transfers might make people uncomfortable.
If the US sends me money I’m going to donate all of it to people that are suffering. If you have any groups or individuals that might deserve it, add them here or e-mail me recommendations!
#5 New Economy Follow Up
I wrote about how a new economy, which is creating great, high paid jobs is splitting away from the “old economy.” As the pandemic continues it will be interesting to see how this split continues to become more striking and visible. Tech firms were the first to go fully remote and some firms like Facebook are beating the government to give out their own $1,000 stimulus direct to employees.
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