Community.

One of the best ways to have good ideas is by plugging yourself into a diverse community of other like-minded people.

And in our post-COVID internet world it feels like this has almost become a lost art form.

Before the internet, you’d have a small number of connections with people in your professional circle, but those connections tended to be much stronger, and you’d get more out of them. There’s a trust factor there. Rapport is crucial.

Back in the early days of Xerox PARC (which ultimately lead to much of the hardware / software inventions that have made our current AI and internet economy possible), you’d have the brightest minds in the world literally sitting on beanbag chairs in a room full of whiteboard walls on a weekly basis, simply sharing their ideas about what the world could become (see thumbnail).

There was something romantic about that.

Nowadays it feels like most people have MANY more connections, but that most of them are much weaker.

Think about it — you go on social media and see posts and content from thousands of other people, but even if you’re super active, you rarely interact with those other people directly. This may be helpful for getting a breadth of shallow information and connections, but it lacks the true relationships.

This kind of makes being a part of an actual community a stronger advantage these days.

Which is why I think it’s extremely important to actively seek out ways to connect with people outside the traditional passive-scroll social media routine. Not saying you can’t use social media to build community, it’s just a different way of using it.

There are a few important ways to connect with community these days:

• Join a local in-person meetup. I regularly attend Startup meetups, AI meetups, Finance meetups. The best way to connect has always been in-person events, and it always will be.

• Join a virtual community. These days the most rewarding ones I am part of tend to be groups and chats in places like Slack, WhatsApp, Discord, and even LinkedIn. This lacks the connection you get from in-person events, but with the benefit of broader, geographically-unconstrained connections

• Attend Twitter / LinkedIn virtual events. Another way to connect is simply showing up in Twitter Spaces or LinkedIn live events to meet people. For awhile during COVID Telegram was a great place to do this, now it seems the mainstream social platforms have built in their own native features to accomodate.

• Start Your own group. If you really want to get plugged in and nothing exists for the domain you’re looking for, the best way is to start your own group. It can be a simple happy hour, a groupchat, or anything in between. I’ve now done this probably a half-dozen times myself, and it’s paid forward so many relational dividends.

The most important thing is establishing active connections, rather than passive ones. Relationships are inherently active, you must be intentional to cultivate them. And by doing so you can build community.

Community is the lifeblood of any ‘movement’ — it’s the way by which ideas are relayed and refined, they way connections are established. You think about why places like San Francisco and New York are such hubs for innovation, and a big part of that is literally just like-minded people being in close proximity and connecting locally in the community.

It’s a big reason why rural places like MN and ND and the upper midwest have seen comparatively less innovation over the years — less population density, less community, it’s hard to get big ideas off the ground.

Ultimately, any ideas is only as good as the sum of the connections to it. Whether that be active stakeholders building new things, or users of the thing itself, without community it’s hard to establish either.

So if you aren’t already, I’d encourage you to go out an join a few groups.

You’ll be better off for it.

Peace,

Ramsey