August Feedback

Feedback

Hello Dr!

Yes! I believe some friends of mine are still looking for a summer position, which is why I thought OSE's program might interest them. I can reach out to them over the weekend and see what they say. The only thing that I wanted to ask was about work, as most students are looking for paid positions. I understand that the OSE course is not that, but I wanted to ask if you have any thoughts on this, as I think people will largely prioritize income over practical skills and it is something that will get in the way of students especially, seeing the value of OSE.

Also, I had this thought:

I think that it might be difficult for students and larger numbers of young people to immediately see the value of OSE, especially since they are often oriented to things that can either a) help them get their degree or b) make them money/help their careers.

I know that you have that one guy who is graduated high school and then started building your units, but I think that is an anomaly, and I worry that there are very few people like that. Again this is kind of back to this idea of how do we bridge this gap between available infrastructure and usability.

Some of it comes down to the selling of OSE.

From my interpretation, the goal of OSE when approaching students is to convince them of the value of the project (open source systems), but also how this can be relevant to them specifically. The truth of the matter is that most people will be more enticed by how something can benefit them, rather than how they can contribute to something that will benefit others. Not to say that the latter wouldn't work.

If the goal of OSE is to bring builders in who will help make the open source products better, I think the best way to do this is to make the experience at OSE so fantastic for the students, that they naturally just want to contribute.

I think if you meet the students where they are and with what they are looking for (work experience, degree relevancy, money or whatever), then you are infinitely more likely to hit home with lots of them, and hopefully bring a few of them on board for a longer period of time. It makes sense to sell the idea of OSE to students as a way for them to build a real understanding of how machines and softwares work, which will give them relevant work experience and a unique opportunity to travel to your location, meet new people and work on a cool project, while the underlying goal of OSE is to have course-takers love OSE and contribute to it in the long run.

Western does something similar with a few groups. Off the top of my head, one that I am familiar with is a trip to Bolivia, where civil engineering student partake in building various structures (such as bridges) for locals. I am sure that there are others. These projects allow engineering students to travel (since regular abroad study is difficult for engineering), while also gaining relevant experience to boost their resumes.

When trips such as this Bolivia one change the lives of these students, you see them giving back by organizing the next group of students to go and repeat the acts of kindness, and generally just campaign for the project to get bigger, land a bigger budget etc... So for OSE that would be like some students come back and look for full time jobs because they loved it so much, while others might not look for a job, but will still advocate for the validity of OSE, which would likely send other students/people your way.

Let me know what you think about all of this! Hopefully this is of some help.

Thanks! August

Marcin Jakubowski <marcin@opensourceecology.org> Feb 27, 2026, 4:01 PM (1 day ago) to Aug

There are 2 levels.

One the short term of 2 weeks - get absolutely inspired with possibility as you build a small house in 5 days. You get a taste for the process (drive to excellence) and possibility (extreme enterprise).

The long term is 4 years, with two possible outcomes (there are more but these are the core). Start a construction business that can make $5M net, or work with OSE reolicating civilization startup experentsts in other locations.

So the specific question for you - do you think the above provides a clear answer for 'what is in it for me as a college student'? If not, is that because our pathway asks the students pretty much to transition from college to a much more entrepreneurial environment? Please share your thoughts.

Now, what about paid work? We will have some skilled positions for the summer, it depends on the skill set of applicants. We are really looking for longer term positions because onboarding will take time. I am not seeing a clear route for college students if they are expecting to return to school after the summer. It seems this would be more for the 'college rejects' that we discussed - is, people who got disappointed with their college experience and who are looking for more meaning. What do you think?

Marcin

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Marcin Jakubowski, Ph.D. Executive Director Open Source Ecology http://opensourceecology.org

Aug Dist Feb 27, 2026, 6:38 PM (1 day ago) to me

Ok so:

I think the short term idea is excellent. It does what it needs to in order to get people to believe in the purpose of OSE and the value it can bring.

As a student or any kind of young person I would see it as a good opportunity to explore some new ideas and meet new people in a pretty low risk environment. Could also contribute to resume work, or lead to a future investment of the individuals time at OSE, given that they enjoy the two week crash course.

Spending time building up a section on the website for this short term idea would be a good tool for students to initially learn then reach out.

On the long term end, I feel like there is some disconnect between your perception of the difference in time commitment and risks versus how students view it.

The first outcome (starting a business) is good, and would definitely grab the attention of students, the only thing is that it would need credibility ie) Have there been successful cases in the past? I think especially now, a lot of students are looking to become proprietary owners of their work, and make money from their own ideas, so being trained in this modular style of creating is definitely a way that that could happen. Of course we also have to think about market size and where it’ll be in the next 10 ish years.

The second idea (after graduating your 4 year program, students can then help work with OSE) seems to have a little disconnect for me.

I’ll put it bluntly, cause I think this is how most people perceive this. I think it is a lot to just straight up ask a young person to devote 4 years (equal to that of school) to this project, where there is no definitive proof as to whether or not it is going to actually give them a better life.

I think that, even in the case of a student who really doesn’t like the education system (such as myself), there are better alternatives if the primary goal was to make money. If you manage to capture a missionary, or someone who truly believes in OSE as an idea, then all these problems obviously disappear. But if we are being honest, those people are hard to find, so for the general person this might be a lot to ask.

One thing that I noticed was the use of the word “civilization”. Posing OSE as an alternative civilization might make people shy away from it because it is too alien. I get that you probably want to find people who are ok with this, because those are the people that will want to die for OSE’s idea, but logically you would probably be more successful if you made OSE seem less like some abstract almost cultish idea, and more like a sort of society that is just looking into the future, without forgetting about everything else that exists.

There is a good concept for this called Temporary Autonomous Zone, it’s from a book written by Hakim Bey on Anarchy. It talks about how to start new structures within old ones because it makes the transition for people much easier. That could be of some help.

So in conclusion, I think the 2 week program is excellent… that is something I would actually consider at some point.

The 4 year proposition is just a lot to ask I think. It doesn’t really have a tangible outcome other than “graduates” will have the skill set to build modular houses and other tools… but what’s the guarantee that these things will even be useful in the future? You would have to convince the students of that.

I feel as though there could be much softer, eloquent and effective ways of onboarding and getting people involved in this kind of project for long periods of time. Jobs are excellent of course… I know you are trying to target people who aren’t planning on going back to school, but maybe there is a middle ground there?

How about something like this for example: Western University has this thing called Maker Projects where they give students access to 3D printers, CTC machines and mentorship. OSE could partner with them and give students access to the repository filled with modular design stuff. Students could then design and create things at the university and start their own business from the university, using OSE automation and repository tech. You could license it to the school (revenue stream for R&D), and have students contribute back to it which would allow OSE to grow and also indoctrinate them into OSEs ideas!

Yeah, those are my current thoughts. I hope something in there is helpful. If you want to set up a call or something to discuss this further then I’d be willing to help! Just let me know.

MJ Assessment

• Clear, visible value appears to be missing to an interested college student.
  • Solution - website should provide clear visible value. If it does not, then the candidate fit tests out as negative. Downside could be that far too few see a clear value, in which case the Builder Crash Course could provide such value.
• Feedback indicates that this person does is not seeking the transformative aspects of this work. The question is, is the market size for transformative work so small that the project cannot scale? This question is worth exploring.

The Core Reframe

Instead of:

“Join us to rebuild civilization.”

Consider:

“Acquire the rare capability to build anything, anywhere, with anyone — and monetize it.”

That is:

• Concrete
• Legible
• Status-enhancing
• Entrepreneurial
• Compatible with student psychology

The civilizational narrative can remain the underlying architecture — but it does not need to be the headline.

Final Strategic Assessment

Do not abandon college students.

But:

• Lead with gateway experiences.
• Show proof of economic upside.
• Provide income pathways.
• Reduce language that triggers abstraction overload.
• Avoid identity-framing that feels cultic or totalizing.
• Build bridges rather than demanding exits.

The market for transformative work is small if framed as sacrifice.

It becomes much larger when framed as advantage.