Can I ask some questions. I don't mean for any of these to be 'gotchas,' just genuinely curious as the idea of running such a community sounds like a meaningful way to make a living:
1. Approximately how much of your time does running The Leading Edge take?
2. What % of the community members did you actively seek, versus engaged with you.
3. Have you ever gotten: "Sounds like a cult," and if so, how do you differentiate.
4. Have you found members to be committal and engaged for the most part?
1. All and none. The actual management is probably 5 hours total a week but constant (monitoring the whatsapp). It actually provides me a container to write/meet people which is my ideal life anyway.
2. The first 20 I hand-picked, the next 40 came from an email to the 160 people that had expressed interest in something like this, then the rest were incoming.
3. Cult: lots of answers but the main one is that I don't pretend to have answers, the group does the work.
Tom, just a comment on tech stacks. Take a look at the open-source nostr protocol. Its most common use-case is a social network (e.g https://primal.net/) but there is private/public streaming (zoom-ish and Discordish), DMs and some early group chats (WhiteNoise). Grant funding (not equity) comes from Jack Dorsey after he walked away from BlueSky. Its still early but https://jumble.social/ is a nostr app with a community-focus which is what you probably want (you could have an NYC chapter and a Sydney chapter) but those users can also benefit accessing from across all chapters too. There is also inbuilt payments via bitcoin lightning ("zaps"). The underlying principles are "no algorithms", censorship resistant, cryptographic identity (your content can't be faked).
lol, I probably made it sound harder than it is :) Perhaps not rush to a centralised CTO but encourage the requisite skill to emerge from the network (the Dunbar constraints may inhibit that). That would be more antifragile.
This is the nudge I needed to kick off Free Agents (today!). Also good timing - just started reading Friends by Robin Dunbar yesterday and the heavy amounts of repeatedly explaining where the number 150 comes from has left it's mark on me.
A wisdom community might make people understand the "value of virtue." I hope. It won't be a utopia, but it might be a happier village. Utopia begins with U(s) too
Can I ask some questions. I don't mean for any of these to be 'gotchas,' just genuinely curious as the idea of running such a community sounds like a meaningful way to make a living:
1. Approximately how much of your time does running The Leading Edge take?
2. What % of the community members did you actively seek, versus engaged with you.
3. Have you ever gotten: "Sounds like a cult," and if so, how do you differentiate.
4. Have you found members to be committal and engaged for the most part?
1. All and none. The actual management is probably 5 hours total a week but constant (monitoring the whatsapp). It actually provides me a container to write/meet people which is my ideal life anyway.
2. The first 20 I hand-picked, the next 40 came from an email to the 160 people that had expressed interest in something like this, then the rest were incoming.
3. Cult: lots of answers but the main one is that I don't pretend to have answers, the group does the work.
4. Yes- very low churn.
Thank you for the responses!
God's work
And he needs a chief mystical officer
I might know a guy
Tom, what do you mean by network stewards?
People who run leading edge style dunbar groups
Tom, just a comment on tech stacks. Take a look at the open-source nostr protocol. Its most common use-case is a social network (e.g https://primal.net/) but there is private/public streaming (zoom-ish and Discordish), DMs and some early group chats (WhiteNoise). Grant funding (not equity) comes from Jack Dorsey after he walked away from BlueSky. Its still early but https://jumble.social/ is a nostr app with a community-focus which is what you probably want (you could have an NYC chapter and a Sydney chapter) but those users can also benefit accessing from across all chapters too. There is also inbuilt payments via bitcoin lightning ("zaps"). The underlying principles are "no algorithms", censorship resistant, cryptographic identity (your content can't be faked).
Oh wow, thank you! This all sounds worryingly over my head, so maybe when I triple my membership fees, I can hire a CTO…
lol, I probably made it sound harder than it is :) Perhaps not rush to a centralised CTO but encourage the requisite skill to emerge from the network (the Dunbar constraints may inhibit that). That would be more antifragile.
Have you considered Mighty Networks or Discord? Good work Tom! 👏
Hiii! Yes both arent good for our needs. Busy people don’t use other apps.
Man the timing of this! Feeling like there is so much juice in the WWW. Grateful you’re leading the way!
I’m not leading anything, but the edge is 😉
This is the nudge I needed to kick off Free Agents (today!). Also good timing - just started reading Friends by Robin Dunbar yesterday and the heavy amounts of repeatedly explaining where the number 150 comes from has left it's mark on me.
Interesting timing... or a sign...
https://youtu.be/yvXPho86PNg?si=rD7kSf61Ejvf1t23
A wisdom community might make people understand the "value of virtue." I hope. It won't be a utopia, but it might be a happier village. Utopia begins with U(s) too
Well done, Tom Morgan. This seems like an important endeavor to me.
Thank you Robert! It’s not mine as much as something I am helping emerge!
Thanks Tom... and adding to the discussion...
https://johnstokdijk538.substack.com/p/building-communities