What I’m thinking about lately
And writing about on LinkedIn and Substack. And speaking about in various zoom venues, and the face-to-face events below. Stay tuned for works in progress, and periodic updates in future newsletters.
- Getting the prices right—how massive subsidies, both explicit and implicit, distort markets and decisions, and why we tax ourselves to accelerate our own demise. (Well, I’ve actually been thinking about this one for half a century; it seems to me to be one of the keys to the kingdom for a world that works.)
- Data addiction so serious that smart people actually explicitly prefer bad data to no data.
- The rise of “regenerative,” and how it too falls prey to the mechanistic mindset.
- Doing business (and everything else) as though we actually belong to the living word.
- The matter of capital-ism.
Diagnosing Capital-ism
Which was the focus of our August conversation on Living Between Worlds—with Grace, Dignity, and Power, now live for you to watch and share. (While you’re there, please “like” and “subscribe”; that helps us with the YouTube algos.)
We considered the six structural defects of capital-ism that most reform efforts don’t reach—Accumulation without limit; Extraction without reciprocity; Alienation without care; Abstraction without ground; Generation without regeneration; Privatization without solidarity. And did some exploring about “what would nature do?”—or rather “what did nature do?”—in the course of its 3.8 billion years of open-source R&D—that could provide clues of how to overcome them.
Why do I hyphenate “capital-ism”? Watch and find out. (And register here to join us next time, on September 18th and the third Wednesday of every month.)
Let’s get in each others’ faces!
Please join me at one or more of these opportunities to meet in person over the next couple of months:
- September 25 at ClimateWeekNYC, where I’ll keynote CapGemini’s Business To Planet Connect and explore bringing nature into the boardroom. (Will you be at ClimateWeek, too? Let’s meet!)
- October 5 for an lively, face to face (!) discussion—over a fine, alfresco, Good People Dinner in a Berkeley CA backyard—about the six principles for economic reinvention that emerge from this diagnosis. A few seats are still available.
- October 14-17 at the Sustainable Brands conference, where I’ll propose shifting focus from employee engagement to employee ownership. (Let me know if you’d like my discount code, good for any participation level.)
And not quite in the flesh, but pretty cool
My AI “clone” now offers 24/7 ontological/ecological/strategic coaching via phone conversations and texts, at 1-254-739-6394, and on the web. Find out why one seasoned sustainability practitioner says “you’re onto something big here!”
If you prefer a deeper, more personal approach, I have capacity for two or three more direct, live, one-on-one coaching clients. Contact me directly— by replying to this email—to apply for a No-cost/No-obligation/No-net sample session. (Note: Prices go up at the end of the year.)
In solidarity,
Gil Friend
CEO, Natural Logic, Inc.