Quantifying the Gift
The Bride taught me more than I realized, and I still learn from her. Sometimes people would only toss a penny into my hat. I’d still always give them a flower. That was the rule. Sometimes I used the flowers to thank people for helping me: the value was not fixed by outside entities. The flower always had a value, but it was never an absolute valu
... See moreAmanda Palmer • The Art of Asking: How I learned to stop worrying and let people help
-Reciprocity? Check. You’ve been getting something of value for free.
Frederik Gieschen • The Rise of Media-First Investors
I’ve written plenty on my fears of what happens to us, when all of our interactions are mediated with a legible financial transaction potential underneath it. The erosion of hospitality. And in the same breath I have oozed over the utopian potential of creative infinites for the culture now that the value of work can be realized more smoothly, and ... See more
Reggie James • It's Not A Ponzi
But as we grow in size from a village into a city, replacing reciprocity with capitalism, we lose the underlying indebtedness of the kin structure which keeps us beholden to each other. We lose the idea of a shared self. Instead we become strangers unto whom we owe nothing, and further, with whom we are in competition for resources.