stargeek
Gift ideasGift ideasGift ideas 12/11/2003 01:09 PM For that special someone. Kinda/sorta nsfw and/or offensive.Via Bifurcated Rivets.Again.(flash?) This is a GrokNews Entry: (what is grok?)Gift ideasGrok Headline matches for Gift ideasHoliday Gift IdeasHoliday Gift Ideas 12/09/2003 02:37 AM A few people have asked me to highlight some fun tech gifts, so I threw together a list of relatively inexpensive, general 2003 Gift Ideas. My top mobile-tech gift ideasMy top mobile-tech gift ideas 12/02/2003 10:23 PM ZDNet Dec 2 2003 8:05PM ET 2003 Software Gift Ideas2003 Software Gift Ideas 12/12/2003 07:45 PM (TidBITS via MyAppleMenu) 2003 Hardware Gift Ideas2003 Hardware Gift Ideas 12/12/2003 07:45 PM (TidBITS via MyAppleMenu) 2003 Gaming Gift Ideas2003 Gaming Gift Ideas 12/12/2003 07:45 PM (TidBITS via MyAppleMenu) 2004 Miscellaneous Gift Ideas2004 Miscellaneous Gift Ideas 12/19/2004 02:50 PM 2004 Hardware Gift Ideas2004 Hardware Gift Ideas 12/19/2004 02:50 PM 2004 Gaming Gift Ideas2004 Gaming Gift Ideas 12/19/2004 02:50 PM 2004 Software Gift Ideas2004 Software Gift Ideas 12/19/2004 02:50 PM 2003 Gift Ideas For The Macintosh-Minded2003 Gift Ideas For The Macintosh-Minded 12/12/2003 07:45 PM (TidBITS via MyAppleMenu) 2004 Gift Ideas for the Macintosh-Minded2004 Gift Ideas for the Macintosh-Minded 12/19/2004 02:50 PM Top 10 Valentine's Day Gift Ideas for
|
 The Idea: The
Gift Economy offers us a means to learn, to understand, to take
charge,
and to change our world. It is a natural economy, steeped in millions
of years of pre-civilization human culture and the culture of all life
on Earth. If enough of us embraced it, the modern 'market' economy,
built on the faulty and inhuman foundations of inequality, scarcity,
false quantification of value, and acquisition, could not
survive.Several of the comments I have received about AHA! The Discovery & Learning Centre have been about the idea of reciprocality(my preferred word: the more common word 'reciprocity' now has an unfortunate connotation of negotiated market exchange rather than the simpler idea of sharing without obligation). I've explained that AHA! will have the effect of forcing down the 'price' of transfer of knowledge and ideas, and of leveling the value we put on every individual's contribution to discovery and learning conversations, so that there is no 'premium' on the contribution of an 'expert', and so that great ideas and important knowledge are affordable to everyone. The end result could be, if we had the collective will to bring it about, a world in which everything is free, and everything has inestimable value. All of this is consistent, I think, with the (suddenly very popular) concept of the Gift Economy, which is not at all the same as an 'exchange' or even a barter economy. What is the Gift Economy? A seminal work on the subject was written over 20 years ago by Lewis Hyde, a book called The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property. Hyde wrote: I speak of the inner gift that
we
accept as the object of our labor, and the outer gift that has become
a
vehicle of culture. I am not concerned with gifts given in spite or
fear, nor those gifts we accept out of servility or obligation; my
concern is the gift we long for, the gift that, when it comes, speaks
commandingly to the soul and irresistibly moves us.
In her review of the book (which I have not yet read), JoAnn Schwartz writes: Hyde is interested in examining
the effect our current immersion in the market economy and the myth of
the free market has both on our view of gifts and on our ability to
give and receive them. The market economy is deliberately impersonal,
but the whole purpose of the 'gift economy' is to establish and
strengthen the relationships between us, to connect us one to the
other. It is this element of relationship which leads Hyde to speak of
gift exchange as 'erotic' commerce, opposing eros (the principle of
attraction, union, involvement which binds together) to logos (reason
and logic in general, the principle of differentiation in particular).
A market economy is an emanation of logos.
Here's an explanation by
Genevieve Vaughan of the fundamental difference between an 'exchange'
or 'market' economy and a Gift Economy:In a market economy, one can hoard one's goods without losing wealth. Indeed, wealth is increased by hoarding--- although we generally call it 'saving'. In contrast, in a gift economy, wealth is decreased by hoarding, for it is the circulation of the gift(s) within the community that leads to increase--- increase in connections, increase in relationship strength. Through this book, Hyde helps us focus on the importance of gifts, their flow and movement and the impact that the modern market place has had on the circulation of gifts. The present economic system is
based upon exchange, giving
in order to receive. The motivation is self-oriented
since what is given returns under a different form to the giver to
satisfy her or his need. The satisfaction of the need of the other
person is a means to the satisfaction of one's own need. Exchange
requires identification of the things exchanged, as well as their
measurement and an assertion of
their equivalence
to the satisfaction of the exchangers that neither is giving more than
she or he is receiving. It therefore requires visibility, attracting
attention even though it is done so often that the visibility is
commonplace. Money enters the exchange, taking the place of products
reflecting their quantitative evaluation.
The very visibility of exchange is self-confirming, while other kinds of interaction -- nurturing, unselfish and other-oriented gifts -- are rendered invisible or inferior by contrast or negative description. What is invisible seems to be valueless, while what is visible is identified with exchange, which is concerned with a certain kind of quantitative value. Besides, since there is an equivalence asserted between what we give and what we receive, it seems that whoever has a lot has produced a lot or given a lot, and is, therefore, somehow 'more' than whoever has less. Exchange puts the ego first and allows it to grow and develop in ways that emphasize me-first competitive and hierarchical behavior patterns. This ego is not an intrinsic part of the human being, but is a social product coming from the kinds of human interaction it is involved in. So the exchange or 'market' economy is entrenched in the concepts of inequality, scarcity, quantifiable equivalence of value, and acquisition, while the Gift Economy is rooted in the concepts of parity, abundance, unquantifiability, generosity and connection. As Eric Raymond pu ts it: Gift cultures are adaptations
not
to scarcity but to abundance. They arise in populations that do not
have significant material-scarcity problems with survival goods. We
can
observe gift cultures in action among aboriginal cultures living in
ecozones with mild climates and abundant food. We can also observe
them
in certain strata of our own society, especially in show business,
science, Open Source and among the very wealthy.
In a 'market' economy, says Hyde, the highest status belongs to those who have acquired the most. In a Gift Economy, the highest status belongs to those who have given the most. But what is most important, he says, is that the gift must always move. This idea was recently popularized by the terrific little movie called Pay it Forward. Every gift is its own reward, but that reward is multiplied, without limit, when the gift, or any gift, is passed along to others. A story is a gift. Blogs are gifts. Ideas and insights and teaching and counsel are gifts. Conversations are gifts. Here is a gift from Chris Corrigan, Jack Ricchiuto and George Nemeth, a wonderful 45-minute Skypecast conversation (with George's contribution unfortunately inaudible). I am paying it forward by linking to it and by summarizing below some excerpts I have taken from it, much of which are about the Gift Economy. Until
you put something in front of people that they are hungry for, you
can't bring out the best in them. We all have a hunger for connection,
for "mates" who understand our frames, our terms of reference.
Weblogs can create powerful virtual relationships. After reading them for awhile you come to "know" the author and when you then "meet" them you can then go to work with them right away. The media have stripped us of direct emotional connection to our world. We now look at the news anchor for clues on how to respond to the news. The media 'mediate' our emotional response to the outside world. When tribal elders witness Open Space they say "This is exactly how we used to meet". Open Space is an indigenous technology, a technology of connection, allowing rapid emergence of understanding. When something is given, something is always inherently given back in exchange. But gifts work best when you pay them forward. You must find another place to use your learnings acquired from others -- it's this passing along that creates the Gift Economy. Scientists have long understood the Gift Economy, the networked way of giving their thinking to each other and relating with one another. This is where the real science happens. The Internet serves a similar purpose, as those who have tried unsuccessfully to make money or bottle up knowledge on the Internet have discovered. The Gift Economy is about 'agency' -- you can't be a passive consumer of gifts. Everyone has within them the capacity to contribute, and the network will only grow if everyone turns the gifts they have received to others. We need to learn to become aware of our own agency. A friend of [Chris'], a Lakota doctor, speaks of the 'circle of courage', and describes the way giving builds self-esteem and hence spirit. Everyone, he says, must build four 'capacities':
Good technologies provide 'back porch aesthetics' that enable natural conversation, comfort and connection. If we accept that we do not have all the answers then we acknowledge that each one of us has a crucial piece of the answer, and what is important is the aggregation and emergence of the pieces of truth each one of us carries. Here is a great gift from Yes! magazine by Beverly Feldman and Charles Gray: 37 ways you can participate in the Gift Economy. What else can we each do to bring about a Gift Economy? The most important things we can do are internal -- transformation of the way we look at our world and its economic principles and the way we act towards others and the world in which we live. Chris calls it "passion bounded by responsibility". Responsibility simply accepted, not thrust upon us. Passion that comes from understanding and the sense of personal capacity. We need to constantly engage ourselves and others in communication and connection, and fight furiously the media paradigm of passive consumption and the market-economy paradigm of only giving when we receive measurable fair value in return. We need to constantly invite each other to address the all-important question What do you really care about? When we engage each other in conversations about this question, we open up possibilities, we begin to feel and realize our own power, capacity, and mastery, we recognize that generosity has nothing to do with charity, and we sense the movement and strength of collective understanding, will and passion. We realize that together, collectively, collaboratively, we know more, and know better, than leaders, presidents, executives, economists, experts, and others who exploit our passivity to tell us what we should do and believe, and engender in us feelings of helplessness, dependence, and addiction. We have more capacity and power to act than all the multinational corporations and the tyrants and the state apparatus of control and repression. Perhaps AHA! will begin its mandate not only exemplifying the attributes and capacity of the Gift Economy but collaboratively helping to encourage and broaden that economy, enabling it to undermine the old economy and replace it with one of parity, abundance, generosity and connection, helping us to imagine and realize a world without money, without personal property, without poverty, without 'economic diseases' (those that kill thousands each week simply because the inexpensive and ubiquitous cures are unaffordable to half the world's people). A world where the very idea that pollution, ecological destruction, loss of biodiversity, slavery and exploitation of humans and other animals could be 'economic', becomes simply absurd. As Chris says, "When each of us does something that is more true to who we really are, the collective impact of all these actions can have profound implications for the direction of our world." |
What did I get for Father's Day? Moleskines: a pocket addressbook and a fullsize notebook. Along with the pocket notebook I had, it's almost a family. I'll have to get a mama moleskine (fullsize diary) though so the papa moleskine (fullsize notebook) won't feel lonely. And perhaps a fully figured sketchbook from Volant on the side...
Apple couldn't ask for a better dilemma -- with nine days left until Christmas, retailers are reporting a shortage of the popular iPod digital music player. By Cynthia L. Webb, Washington Post
 The Idea:
A summary of the importance of conversation as a catalyst of cultural
evolution, the seven purposes of conversation, some 'cultural
anthropology' on how conversations 'operate' today, and a first stab
at
some rules or principles we could learn and adopt to produce better,
more effective and productive conversations.In my article Seeing the Big Picture (Building a Bigger Frame) I argued for the need for more expansive thinking to encompass, understand and build on different points of view, rather than reinforcing and polarizing those points of view through parochial and antagonistic argument. One of the crucial tools we use to exercise and expand our thinking is conversation, and it occurred to me that if we want to learn to think in ways that transcend the old, learning to converse in ways that transcend the old might be a good place to start. Humberto Maturana has said: Human existence takes place in
the relational space of conversation. This means that, even though
from
a biological perspective we are Homo Sapiens, our way of living - that
is to say, our human condition - takes place in our form of relating
to
each other and the world we bring forth in our daily living through
conversation.
If you're like me, you've engaged in your share of eavesdropping in public places -- restaurants, bars, elevators, cocktail parties, subway trains. What is disturbing is not that the subject matter and arguments are usually inane (though they are), but that the syntax, the flow, and the composition of the conversational threads are so awkward, sloppy, selfish and extravagant. It's been said that conversation is like a dance: It requires some grace, some courtesy to avoid stepping on your partners' toes, and agreement on who (at any point) is leading and who is following. Perhaps this is why conversations that involve three or more people at once are often so clumsy, more like a sequence of two-person conversations one after the other with (to strain the dance analogy) different people constantly butting in, usually before the song in progress has properly ended. Recently I read a wonderful quote that went something like this: Are you listening or just waiting your turn to talk? Sound like someone you know? A recent article< /a> by Australian Open Space practitioner Alan Stewart suggests five purposes for conversation: learning, reassurance, building trust, "working out what is important" and entertainment. Here's (I think) a more complete list from one of my 2003 posts:
In his article Stewart says: From circles of elders around
ancient campfires to the conversations in the cafés and salons
that
spawned the French Revolution, people have always gathered for real
conversation about questions that matter. In those times and places
where innovation is born other simple conditions are also present. In
addition to pursuit of a question that really matters and commitment
to
creating the space and time to explore it, it is crucial that mutual
listening and a spirit of discovery infuse the conversations. A
certain
type of "magic" appears—the magic of a new collective
intelligence
arising from the individual minds present in the conversation. The
wisdom needed to address the concerns of any group is already "in the
middle of the circle" waiting to be tapped. These webs of
conversations
and the action commitments that naturally arise from them can serve as
the energy generator, the amplifier, the core unit of change force for
co-evolving the future in any
system.
He quotes Konrad Lorenz' on the hazards of conversation: "Said is not heard; heard is not understood; understood is not agreed to; agreed to is not carried out". This is a more concise way of laying out the enormous intellectual and emotional challenge entailed in conversation that I described in my That's Not What I Meant article . Here is a recap of my amateur observations about conversations from that post:
 I'm coming to believe that good conversation, like good collaboration, is a skill, and, just as a lot of practice dancing badly does not make you a better dancer, just talking a lot does not necessarily make you a better conversationalist (in fact I suspect it may make you worse at it, by entrenching bad habits). If it's a skill it should be possible to learn it and teach it. And, while the seven 'purposes' of conversations bulleted in red above might require somewhat different skills, I suspect that there is a basic conversational 'skill set' that is common to all purposes. The following list of 'rules' or 'principles' or 'elements' of good conversation constitute my first attempt at identifying what we would need to learn, and teach, to be better conversationalists. Unfortunately, it seems likely that the quality of the conversation will inevitably be at the level of the poorest conversationalist, just as the performance of a dancing couple will reflect the least-accomplished partner. This list is the result of thinking out loud, and I'm sure it is far from complete. Please join the conversation!
|
The following phrases have been identified by the grok system as matching this entry:
