@chad.stewart I deeply appreciate the authenticity of your post for many reasons. Based on the thoughtfulness in your post, you probably already know most of what I’m about to write, but it never hurts to rekindle the power of our core values from time-to-time. . . .
I am not 100% sure what the ultimate “function” of the Cardano community is. . .
The Socio-Biological Purpose of Our Community. Nothing significant in this world can be accomplished without a community of like-minded humans working together at various levels. “Working together” requires an emotional connection based on some set of shared experiences, shared values, and shared beliefs about how the world works. The emotional connection is the invisible glue that keeps humans together when they’re working toward hard goals, which no single human could accomplish alone. So, that’s the socio-biological purpose of our community.
The Functional Purpose of Our Community. Building world-changing systems is hard. The Cardano team can’t do any of this without a fanatical community of like-minded people preaching the Cardano gospel from every valley and mountain. Cardano is competing against far more powerful organizations with much deeper pockets, including governments and Fortune 500 behemoths. Cardano will lose market share to inferior platforms if we, the community, don’t help offset the hype and propaganda coming from those other groups. Failure to capture a critical mass of market share would be bad for our political freedoms and for our pocketbooks. So, we must fight alongside the team with every ounce of available time and energy to prevent that from happening.
We enjoy socializing around common interests. Is that all, or is there more to it?
When Time is Scarce, We Can Still Allocate Some Mental Space-Time-Energy to Preparation. I’m an introvert and socializing often drains me, but when it comes to things and people that are important to me, I still try to allocate some mental space-time-energy to thinking about how to contribute something meaningful/productive to them in some incremental way. Sometimes time is so scarce that we can’t even act on our thoughts, but the process of thinking about the things/people that are important to us prepares us to contribute in meaningful ways later when more time is available. That’s how I approach this community.
I don’t feel a strong “allegiance” to the flag or nation. I feel disconnected, manipulated, and mis-represented. I don’t agree with the politics, policies and practices that are going on.
The Path to Enlightenment and Joy is Paved with Disillusionment and Despair. I understand and appreciate your comment above at the deepest possible level. I served in the U.S. Air Force and worked inside the USG (specifically, in the intelligence community) during the first half of my career. They brainwash everybody into believing the U.S. is the greatest country in the galaxy. Then, as I observed how the USG systematically sabotaged, manipulated, and destroyed entire countries and its own citizens, I become deeply disillusioned and depressed. I wrote several books and immersed myself into building several companies, but those were just distractions from the deep sadness that I’ve had since my eyes were opened to the truth.
Cardano = Realistic Hope and Hope = Inspiration & Joy. Now, for the first time in my life, I see a realistic path forward for humanity to restore trust in capitalism and democracy. It won’t be easy. Many special interest groups will fight us at every step of the way. But that’s OK because we only have one life to live and we may as well do something interesting and meaningful with our lives while we’re here.
A Life with Purpose Creates Endless Inspiration & Motivation. Having a sense of purpose in our lives is one of the greatest gifts that we can ever receive. I’ve had a sense of purpose for many years now, but Cardano super-charges my feeling of purpose by giving us the technical tools to make a truly global impact, which was not possible up to this point in human history. I can’t imagine a more exciting and meaningful purpose for our lives than to build more equitable, trustworthy, and sustainable economic and political systems for our future and our posterity.
Should not community run deeper than “my money is secure and growing” and “I enjoy chit chatting with those guys”?
Yes, I hope my comments above convey a deeper purpose.
I don’t personally have a deep interest or lasting need for that kind of a community.
As an extremely busy introvert, neither do I. But where there is purpose, there is endless inspiration and motivation to contribute as much as possible to the fulfillment of our shared purpose.
Perhaps I am getting ahead of myself with all this. . . .
Not at all. Everybody must find a path between lethargic disillusionment and energized purpose. Your path is probably different than mine, but hopefully my path gives you some ideas about how to find your own path to purpose within the context of our community.
. . . if there was a compelling vision for the community, something more than increased value & security of ADA, something I could be more fundamentally passionate about, I would invest my time (and myself) and could passionately sell it to the millions of people who feel like I do.
Vision without Community is Delusion, but Vision with Community Fuels Life-Changing Revolutions. The vision for what we can accomplish with Cardano is crystal clear to me, but the drudgery of everyday life can sometimes cloud our vision. This is precisely what community is for: When we perceive the world in isolation, it’s easy to forget why we are here, what we can do to contribute, how to overcome life’s challenges, etc. But when we open ourselves up to a community of like-minded humans, we reinforce our purpose, our vision, and we become more than the sum of our parts. This process is what empowers small groups to make a big impact in the world.
Shared Vision Is Our Bridge from Dream to Reality. When we think deeply about what Cardano realistically represents for humanity, the vision of how we can harness it as a community should emerge spontaneously, like a spark in the darkness. Once you see that vision, it is breathtaking; and you can’t stop thinking and talking about the vision and what you’re doing to contribute to the fulfillment of that vision.
I think the Cardano Foundation should start speaking and doing videos/interviews to relate deeper the humanity side of the vision of Cardano to the world (Charles covers the tech quite well already).
I appreciate your sentiment here, but I think this is asking too much from the team. Their job is to build the technology (which is already very hard) and the community’s job is to reflect and amplify the human elements of the technology so the rest of the world can see and appreciate our shared vision. Yes, the team can spend more money on marketing, hiring some pretty faces to regurgitate some talking points, but ultimately, the humanity of Cardano must bubble up organically from our community. Truly authentic communities can never be created from the top-down; they must always emerge from the depths like a natural spring bubbles from the bottom-up.
Sorry for rambling, anyone following me? Constructive criticism welcome!
Perhaps our collective rambling will help others to connect with the community in some meaningful way.