[FRIAM] green swans

Wed May 6 17:31:00 EDT 2020

Steve, "my interest in this ..."

The company I was (am) starting in Amsterdam is dedicated to the idea of using software to make the world a better place. We will only work with companies that are value driven, committed to environmental and social good, and are human affirming (e.g. empowering employees).

Large companies like Patagonia, B Corp certified companies, and what are called "Teal Organizations" are our target clients. There are far more of these in Europe than the US.

Behind the scenes are two primary convictions — first, that IT as currently designed and implemented is unsustainable (I authored a Medium article [attached] about this several months ago); and second that software engineering is exactly the wrong way to go about developing software (not to mention that the entire discipline is predicated on the assumption that human beings — including programmers — are idiots and little more than sources of error).

Our approach to developing software has significant economic benefits for our clients; plus, we can develop "living" software that adapts and evolves in concert with the organization it supports. We have little interest in using these tools to support predatory capitalistic companies.

dave(Quixote)w

On Tue, May 5, 2020, at 8:14 PM, Steven A Smith wrote:
> Dave -
> 
> Thanks for the reference (and promise of a book report?).
> 
> I take the meaning of "black swan" to be something more easily
> recognized in hindsight, but once recognized, seeming to be obvious, but
> also having a profound effect on the course of events.
> 
> I think this is identical to a bifurcation in the phase space of a
> dynamical system?   Dynamical systems, whilst (usually?) entirely
> deterministic, are also unprestateable.    The most efficient way to
> predict the system's behaviour is to execute it.
> 
> The point of the Dave's book, as described in various reviews (e.g.
> Goodreads) suggests that the topic is primarily a growing awareness from
> hard-line capitalists that there are features of the reward space that
> are outside of their usual criteria, and many of them are those USUALLY
> reserved for bleeding-heart tree-huggers (aka Greens).  
> 
> There seems (in reviews) to be *some* cynicism suggesting that "green
> swan" technologies or strategies are maybe only
> relevant/important/necessary because of public sentiment (being *forced*
> by public sentiment/popular support/political correctness) rather than
> because (western/American?) capitalism's seemingly necessary exponential
> growth is hitting the true limits to growth that make that seeming
> exponential a logistic.
> 
> A lot of the criticism of the likes of Tom Steyer and Michael Bloomberg
> has been that they "came late to the Green Party" (and many would
> rightly say that Bloomberg really isn't even half there).  Both have
> defended "better late than never"...
> 
> FWIW...  I did watch the "Planet of the Humans" which makes similar
> accusations against the likes of Al Gore and Bill McKibben.   Not so
> much that they came *late* to the party, but that they came *lite* to
> it.  I suspect the film-maker (Moore just bankrolled it and put his name
> on it, he didn't seem to contribute much to it's making) would be really
> hard on "green swan Capitalists".    Off topic slightly, the movie did
> have a lot of half-truths and out-of-context cheap shots, but the bottom
> line (IMO) wasn't that far off.   Letting the same economic-industrial
> stakeholders that maybe drove our ecology/climate right up to the edge
> of a cliff, now take over and drive "Green Technologies"  might be the
> definition of insanity (doing the same thing over and over again and
> expecting different results).   It was *more* than just judging
> industrial sustainability movement as greenwashing... 
> 
> I'm curious what your (Dave's) stake in this is?  Do you feel that our
> current capitalistic-industrial arc is patently unsustainable (and on
> what time scale)?  And do you believe that in spite of the differences
> you (and many others) might have with
> bleeding-heart-liberal-tree-huggers, that maybe there is more common
> ground than you recognized?  Something to work across the aisle (gulf)
> on?   Or are the fundamental sensibilities of "the opposition" too
> distorted?  
> 
> - Steve
> 
> > Just ordered, hardcover (two weeks before it gets here probably) and kindle (will read later today.) Looks very interesting but will send review later.
> >
> > https://www.amazon.com/Green-Swans-Coming-Regenerative-Capitalism/dp/1732439125/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1588678839&sr=8-1-spons
> >
> > "If Nassim Nicholas Taleb's "Black Swans" are problems that take us exponentially toward breakdown, then "Green Swans" are solutions that take us exponentially toward breakthrough. The success--and survival--of humanity now depends on how we rein in the first and accelerate the second."
> >
> > davew
> >
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