Totally!! The big question mark is how do we moneymake with it?
Seems like a good thing to do is to come to an understanding, at least tentative, of what we believe is Definitely Valuable. Then see if we can monetize providing that
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Ironically I kinda see coaching in this light, though only if people end up better off in a real way. Then defining that still feels a little tricky, like maybe I'd have to understand the nature of the Good fully to know what "in a real way" means
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There is something here that feels fraught and really worth examining.
For ex: seems strange NOT to acknowledge that greater life satisfaction, ease, relaxation are intrinsic goods, yet if they come at the expense of generativity and engagement-with-the-world seems wirehead-y
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So what do, since because of this there *does* seem to be a risk of wireheadiness with offering coaching or circling?
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there's a bit where says explicitly "All things being equal, human beings are ridiculously ANTI-wireheading" and i've been chewing on this
wireheading is not actually the failure mode i'm worried about with coaching etc, it's something a bit different
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i think helping people feel happier etc. is actually highly compatible with increasing their engagement with the world, certainly i myself have been most engaged with the world when i felt the happiest
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what i'm worried about is the possibility of sort of generating self-reinforcing loops - like spreading a coaching philosophy that makes people feel good by giving them hope in various ways but isn't necessarily conducive to like the broader human project in some sense
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or e.g. like creating a "circling ecosystem" that's people running circling workshops which inspire other people to run circling workshops etc. and similarly with people running meditation trainings that inspire other people to run meditation trainings etc.
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Yeah, absolutely! I worry about this, too. And I get the sense this thing is actually pretty fundamental to the problem of "making money in ways that aren't terrible"
A lot of ways that money is made actually seem very much like this to me!
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As one example: people demand more streaming at least partly (I suspect, could be projecting, probably am in part) because they're so tired from working full-time jobs. Not *exactly* circularity but if we elaborated it more we might see the circle explicitly
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i have this "closed-loop" feeling about video games for sure 😬