Gift Culture

I don’t have much to say here yet, the point of this post is to link you to Innovation depends on Gift Culture.

Gift exchange flip the Lemon Market problem upside down, because of the particular social rules around gift-giving and celebrating intent. Gift culture has sacred protocol: if you’re offered a gift, you must accept the gift, and you must reciprocate either in return or by paying it forward. If I offer you a gift, saying, “Here is all this information, promise and potential”, then by the rules of gift exchange, you are obligated to take it seriously, and you are obligated to offer some potential in return, for a window of time.

And this tweet:

I’ve talked to a lot of ambitious elders about this and the general shape of the answer i found was that those who were most fulfilled were those who gave back to others. they’re proud of the difference they made to people, not the artifacts they produced or awards they won

@visakanv

I might eventually collect enough material to turn this into it’s own page someday, but for now it exists because it’s a good summary of how I try to live.