The past decade has been an extraordinary adventure in discovering new social models on the Web—ways to work, create and organize outside of the traditional institutions of companies, governments and academia. But the next decade will be all about applying these models to the real world.
Chris Anderson of WIRED and author of “The Long Tail”
WELCOME to the next decade—the 2nd decade of the new century.
NOW is the time, in the midst of turbulent economic and cultural change, when the true creative lights among us are gathering up the new light bulbs we all built in that first decade—and we’re stringing them together. We want to light up entire communities in new ways.
In a nutshell, that’s the whole point of that FREE BOOK we helped Seth Godin to give away yesterday in our annual ReadTheSpirit 10 Spiritual Sages to Watch in 2010 list. Jump back, look for bald guru Seth Godin’s face in that listing and get your copy of “What Matters Now.”
The book includes passages like the one above by Chris Anderson and lots of fascinating ideas from other innovators, including Seth himself.
DO SOMETHING today to help make the world a better place, will you please?
You can think of many great things to do—but may we suggest one?
Email a friend, relative or coworker and tell them why you enjoy something you’ve read in ReadTheSpirit. If they’re not so “spiritual” or “religious,” then point them to Dr. Wayne Baker’s experiment in civil dialogue http://www.OurValues.org that looks at life’s important values from a secular perspective.
If you know someone who would enjoy a fresh report from the hot young evangelist Rob Bell—well, then tell a friend to visit our online magazine tomorrow. You’ll hear from Rob in an entirely fresh way in our latest interview with him about 2010.
But, please, do Email a friend, will you? Send them a link to https://readthespirit.com or to any individual story that’s caught your eye. Our online magazine is healthy and growing in 2010, but—like Seth Godin, Chris Anderson and all of our other colleagues in new media—we know that we need to string the lights in this new decade to light up a truly vital community.
Think about it this way: It’s an act of generosity to give someone something you care about—even information itself.
HERE’s how Seth Godin himself puts it in “What Matters Now” …
When the economy tanks, it’s natural to think of yourself first. You have a family to feed a mortgage to pay. Getting more appears to be the order of business.
It turns out that the connected economy doesn’t respect this natural instinct. Instead, we’re rewarded for being generous. Generous with our time and money but most important generous with our art.
If you make a difference, people will gravitate to you. They want to engage, to interact and to get you more involved.
In a digital world, the gift I give you almost always benefits me more than it costs.
If you make a difference, you also make a connection. You interact with people who want to be interacted with and you make changes that people respect and yearn for.
Art can’t happen without someone who seeks to make a difference. This is your art, it’s what you do. You touch people or projects and change them for the better.
This year, you’ll certainly find that the more you give the more you get.
EMAIL A FRIEND? Ask them to enjoy something you’ve found at ReadTheSpirit?
PLEASE TELL US WHAT YOU THINK:
This is a good time to sign up for our Monday-morning ReadTheSpirit Planner by Email—it’s
free and you can cancel it any time you’d like to do so. The Planner
goes out each week to readers who want more of an “inside track” on
what we’re seeing on the horizon, plus it’s got a popular “holidays”
section.
Not only do we welcome your notes—but our readers enjoy them as well. You can do this
anytime by clicking on the “Comment” links at the end of each story.
You also can Email ReadTheSpirit Editor David Crumm. We’re also reachable on Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, YouTube and other social-networking sites as well.
(Originally published at https://readthespirit.com/)
