#ethicalchat
Just thought id start a conversation around ethics. Should we as makers be shifting away from capitalistic thought and moving towards making a better world, we had projects focused on the climate breakdown last year with the fixathon and we're now seeing a move towards covid19 projects.
What's next, where do we go from here?
Open for ideas.
Back to capital cuz we are not gonna have any money :D
what about re-inventing capitalism.
For example, focusing on circular design?
@efran that's what I mean about re-inventing capitalism and focusing on circular design.
We don't have to squeeze the teabag to win.
@theshawe I guess, you can do whatever you want, you are an individual and living in a free world. No one is directing your path :) Do your products according to your personal values and that's it. .. No need to say how should other people live … Focus on your life and inspire :) … You really don't need to squeeze the teabag … Be glad you have endless options …
@efran totally Emil, I'm not suggesting how other people should live. Just thinking out loud and asking the questions from my perception.
I love making money.
The teabag reference is just re: the graph always going up and to the right. Is balance more important?
omg this is so true David. where do we go now? maybe others are busy?
What are the first things that come into your head when asked.
"what is globally used by the the masses through capitalism that could be redesigned with a circular mindset rather than a capitalist growth mindset?"
@fajarsiddiq Why save more money Fajar? Should we not be sharing out the money?
On a personal level, we should put people, the environment, freedom and privacy over profits.
Supporting free and open software is also a great step forward.
Beyond that, I think we should aspire to make our projects succeed, so that we have more time for activism and politics.
That's very true and honestly the way I look at the big picture. Though does this mean we can't make projects that succeed (financially) and that are involved with activism and politics.
Is it wrong to capitalise on politics. (#greenwashing?)
@gabriel4649 I agree. As long as your balance swings to your cause and not to your own pocket.
podcasts about ethics.😂 When it comes to ethics I think about how no market is winner take all, that idea is soooo San Francisco. In my case people can listen to my podcast and other people's podcast, there isn't only one maker podcast. There's room for everyone. You don't need to steal other people's listeners.
For OP, there are thousands of podcasters 1. They can join multiple podcasting community 2. I'm okay if not every podcaster joins OP. While I'm not going to support or join any other podcasting community I'm not going to steal their members. I have my members they have there's.
I think I just wrote my ethics chapter for the book👍
The best way to reduce the need for massive capital (income) is to simply reduce how much capital we need to survive. This means buying fewer things, buying higher quality things that last longer, eating out less, buy less coffee from Starbucks. Do we really need the latest and greatest devices, video games, vehicles? Do we need that huge house? etc. Stop making everything a "single use" item, these things create so much extra waste it's unbelievable.
Simply reducing what we "need" on a global scale would have tremendous (positive) health, environmental and financial outcomes with relatively minor changes to our day-to-day lives to make it happen.
I don't think we need to completely re-invent anything, just start focusing on the small things and how those small things can make big issues when looking at it from a global scale.
We have to stop falling for these splashy, gimmicky "opportunities", move away from the idea of "get rich quick", or even the idea of getting rich at all, how much money do we really need to live comfortably? Certainly not billions, probably not even millions. The problem is, there will always be suckers and the will always be opportunists - there is just no way to change that.
This is the facts. This is the same thoughts i have. Alot of people didn't focus on small things, so true.
Micah I hear you. What I've seen during the Covid19 has been interesting. There has definitely been a reflection on myside of the world with people getting back to basics. Using their local shops, baking their own bread and treats to spark joy in their loved ones. However there has also been the panic buying, overspending going on too. So we are not there yet.
I think as a maker society or culture we need to look at things and challenge what impact we are having. Let's face it. One of the main goals of most makers is to reach a #1 spot on Product Hunt.
Look at what Product Hunt is exactly. It's exactly what you're taking about and saying we are needing to reduce. Granted it's not Starbucks, Apple of Sony (everyday…) It's mostly innovative makers. But how much is on Product Hunt that has not already been done before and how much is truly innovative?
By focusing on small, do you mean stop using Amazon? Stop using Netflix? Stop buying Apple products? :)
@theshawe Agreed, still lots of panic buying which obviously hurts everyone. I know here, the stores are mostly caught up again so it's not as much of an issue as it was at first.
Personally, I have little ambition to reach #1 on Product Hunt, I find it difficult to do unless you have lots of followers and two, the traffic you do get is very short-term and 90+% never come back. This "Get #1 on PH" is kind of a sad end goal anyway for makers, is that really the best we can do? Putting our expectations of success on the unlikely chance of making #1 on one site, gross. It was Digg before PH. We need a better system in place to help makers grow traffic over the long-term, something that sends our sites 1,000+ visitors per month, that would be far more interesting to me.
There are very few things that are truly innovative these days, totally agree. It's more about who you know rather than what you build that makes a product successful these days.
I think yes, potentially stop using Amazon, Netflix, Apple. It's more so reduce reliance on them versus flat out stopping. I order something from Amazon once every 4-6 months, whereas my wife orders something almost weekly. So she could easily reduce. We have Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime - in theory we could get by with just one of those services. We already cut out cable years ago. A lot of people upgrade their iPhones each year which is unnecessary, my wife and I are still on our iPhone 6 devices and they work just fine still.
We all got by just fine 10 years ago without these things, we can certainly get by still if we used them less.
Even something simple as using reusable bags when we go grocery shopping, just think how much that would save on plastic bags if we all did that. The list of things like that goes on and on.
As bad as Covid19 is, I think it's opened a lot of people's eyes as to how much they waste each day, from Time, to Money spent on eating out, Gas, etc. It has shown people how little they actually focus on their families and creative projects. We are all just so "busy", we have finally had a chance to slow down and it's quite interesting to see what people have done with that new mindset.
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