I come here to the blog, a couple days after writing political posts, and on the day Congress rejected the $700M bailout plan. I come here not to talk again about politics - but to talk about a section of startup culture and of startup writing that can work to combat what we’re seeing today; namely, the strife, pettiness, and anger all over Washington and Wall Street, and for that matter, all over twitter (and presumably, all over the US population). I don’t like it, and really, I’m pretty sure no one likes it.
where do we go then? what do we do about it? well… that’s a big question. and I believe there are many answers. but I do believe one of them is community. startup communities. I think that in the new Internet age, less and less people are reaching out to authorities and major news media for answers and direction, and I think more and more people are reaching out to smaller, self-selected communities for the same thing. and really, I think that’s a great opportunity. it’s a great opportunity because we have the chance to create those communities from scratch - to make them warm, supportive, and helpful… rather than bitter, partisan, and destructive.
we should pay attention to community, now more than ever. we should create new startups to foster it, and we should create communities within those startups that are warm and empowering, not angry and suffocating. we should put the energy in to create our next meeting places, and encourage those meetings to transcend the limits of our current ones. writing matters, because it creates community. community matters, because in a new age, I believe it will create a better population.
I do. I believe that. that’s even where I’m headed professionally - to help good web 2.0 startups build good communities. and I know, of course, that it’s not where most of you all are heading. but in some way, somehow… it would be great to have you along.
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