Testimonial Emails

Ryan L

Hi Marcin,

I felt inspired to write to express gratitude for what you are doing. I discovered OSE and GVCS earlier this year and the concept strongly resonates with me. 

I got my degree in Math and went to work on artificial intelligence with a rosy view of the what I thought the corporate world would be like. I had a similar experience to the one you described in your TED talk: 

1) Realized I am essentially useless 2) So are the major companies that run our society (because they are comprised mostly of useless people like me.)

(2) is important because I have woken up to the fact that typical corporations don't creatively build anything on their own. They just outsource all R&D to either the open source movement or to academia which together provide the bulk of human technological advancement free of charge. Corporations see their job as commercializing, managing customer expectations, devising marketing tactics, etc. Not building or innovating.

I saw that it wasn't the quality of the product that mattered, but the way it was presented. What they're really optimizing for is perception, not reality.

I come at this from a Catholic religious perspective, so I started reading the economic literature of Chesterton, Schumacher, etc. What I have come to realize is that we have been deceived into believing we live in the best possible economic world because the so-called free market maximizes utility and efficiency. Whereas the reality is that the majority of people have become dependent for their survival on companies like Amazon and Google and therefore on the whims of their leadership. This means the average person has zero freedom to control the trajectory of his or her own life. I like Chesterton's idea of "three acres and a cow", i.e. that each individual should have control of a small but substantial part of the means of production and that in so doing, have power over his own destiny.

I think we're at a critical juncture with the rise of AI and robotics where the economy can either tend towards extreme centralization or decentralization. It seems to me that rather than devoting resources to new forms of entertainment or leisure or convenience, it makes sense to spend our surplus on the things in life that drive the most impact, the basic building blocks of civilized life.

I think I will join one of your workshops some day. I am not in a position to get involved now, as my first son is on the way and I still need the income from my corporate job. But at least let me share my excitement about your project. I will try to support when I can.