Reversing the Centrifuge of Modernity — Part 1

We are isolated.

But as modernity, working like a giant centrifuge, started separating everything that in traditional societies co-mingled, it became impossible for children to learn through pure imitation. They were segregated by age groups and denied access to the offices, factories, workshops, and stores, whose skills they would have to master to become successful adults. -- Escaping Flatland

We are isolated.

Wise researchers work in separate buildings (separate industries!) from charismatic leaders who can spread their hard-earned knowledge to early adopters. Lost young adults live and socialize separately from the competent craftsmen who could transform their abundant time and energy into skill and confidence. Gifted children live separately from geniuses who could inspire their best learning. Schools and parents are isolated from each other to the point that the relationship is often adversarial.

There is little multi-disciplinary co-mingling, and there are few social institutions that put beauty or virtue above their membership fees. Complex human value systems were put in the centrifuge too, and are isolated into simple component metrics: in 2022, we value money, fame, views, citations, power. Complex embodied values like craftsmanship, honesty, joy, love, beauty, fraternity, and thrill have been relegated to the sidelines of life — values to pursue with your “hobbies”, but not with your “career” (whatever that means, another result of the centrifuge).

This is a choice. I have opted out.

Here is what I am doing to reverse the Centrifuge of Modernity. I hope my actions may inspire you.

Living In Community

Priya and I began cultivating a community by starting a coliving house together. Our mission statement was humble and expressive: “this house will be kind, curious, and playful.”

We didn't have enough friends to build our community of 7 (our social circles were mostly filled with young professionals working long hours at tech companies, and timing moves with friends is hard), so we found them online. Our closest and earliest collaborator was an anon on Twitter who followed Priya. We had no idea how the meeting would go, but his tweets were kind, curious, and playful so we decided it was worth a shot. He was an instant friend and we signed a lease the next week.

With the “core” of the house assembled, we began posting on Facebook, Craigslist, and cooperative housing groups. We wrote our values on paper and designed an application to test the values of each applicant. We got coffee with the ones we loved.¹

Since then, we have only become better at creating and living in community. The muscle builds itself. Our new project is ambitious but relaxed: slowly gather hundreds of friendly, ambitious nerds within a 5-minute walk in New York City. I couldn’t be happier with the friends we’ve gathered so far. I already have more than enough love and community to last me a lifetime, so if it takes us another 10 years to find the others, I don’t mind. I’m patient.

Finding Good People (even if it's hard)

With the right collaborators, you can do anything, and joyfully, too! The challenge is assembling a good team. Not just talents, but personalities that fit together.

We were (and are) selective. If you expect to weave a new social tapestry composed of strong relationships, then people must like each other — most often this means having synergistic and non-competing values and visions for life. This is non-negotiable. It was hard because we had to find and interview so many people, but we would have wasted everyone's time if we picked wrong!

It's difficult and painful to admit that some people just don't (or won't) harmonize with you. My recommendation is to rip off the band-aid, even if it hurts.

Sharing my infrastructure and avoiding formalities

Be open-source. Be hacky. Build for my neighbors.

Jane Jacobs has a relevant idea here – you can’t formalize or institutionalize the informal obligations that citizens have to each other. Scenes run on the kindness of strangers (made possible by the trust of society). The world is run by volunteers.²

Here are some projects I’m planning to co-build for myself and my neighbors:

• Cafe / Library / Co-working / Co-learning space

  problem:

  • Co-working spaces are too corporate, and the conversations there are bad or non-existent. I want Vienna Coffee House culture in my city. I want a place filled with love, intention, and ambition.

  • Ambitious teens have no place to co-work with friendly, productive adult mentors. They have no chance to see Good, Meaningful Work done in public.

  • sfcommons doesn’t exist where I live

• A relaxing neighborhood sauna/spa

  problem:

  • I want to be able to sauna after a home workout, but I can’t

• An experimental hacker lab

  problem:

  • I miss being able to work on hardware projects, and my roommates miss being able to build furniture. We would like a place to do both.

Expressing my values through Aesthetics:

The way an environment looks, feels, sounds, and smells tells you exactly what is valued by the humans in that environment.

My spaces are always a bit messy, not like a dirty bedroom, but more like a hectic art studio. As if to say: “this space is meant to be well-used.”

Check out these floors for an example of what I mean. The floors tell you that it’s okay to spill paint in this house. We have paint on our floors for the same reason.

Our furniture is always second-hand, often picked up from the neighbors who come and go from our apartment building each month. I want people to feel comfortable ruining it.

Our cutlery, dishes, and cups are lost-and-found, too. There’s something whimsical about opening my cabinet to an eclectic assortment of glasses, mugs, jars, and teacups arranged haphazardly in rows.

There’s art all over the walls, including art that we and our roommates have made — whatever we can find that looks good. We change it up frequently. Our fridge is covered top to bottom in photos from community events, held up by magnets.

We have 100 or so plants. It’s worth keeping things alive.

We must have 15 musical instruments, though I haven’t counted.

Most importantly, there’s a hum of optimistic energy — a constant conversation that never really stops. It moves from room to room, occasionally traveling to the local coffee shop and back, but always somewhere to be found. The aesthetics of conversation matter, too.

Designing for multiple generations:

When we shut down our software startup, I decided to take a temporary job as a headmaster at a local Montessori school.

Why?

Because Maria Montessori is exactly the sort of virtuous person I aim to emulate. Her philosophy shares my deep belief that humans should help each other achieve happiness and create beautiful, functional environments. She was the first person to create an environment that truly empowered children.

It’s not enough to only design for yourself — I want to design for my kids, too.

I plan to talk a lot more about education and Montessori in my newsletter, so I’ll save this topic for another day. Sufficed to say, I’m putting together the curriculum that I will use to raise my own children. It’s heavily inspired by Montessori, and it’s a substantial departure from the isolating and segregated experience of public schools.³

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There’s so much more to say, but my timer just went off, so I’m headed to bed. You’re reading the first draft.

If I can leave you with anything, it would be a request to raise your voice. I aim to re-mingle society, and the few others I know with the same goal seem to be keeping their voices down, as if by being too loud, we might be thrown back into that horrible spinning centrifuge.

Well, I’ll be as loud as I need to be. I’ve got nothing to lose, and a beautiful society to gain.

1. actually, this is a lie because COVID had just hit, so we just zoomed. We would have gotten coffee if it were possible, though :(

2. Thanks

visakanv's switchboard

for basically this whole paragraph

3. If you have specific questions about education, I plan to write a lot more, but have no idea where to start — there’s so much to say! Feel free to write to me with questions, and I’ll publish an FAQ.