Offers, our Connective Signals

Trent Larson

— 6 min read

Part 3 of 3 of the Time Safari path (AKA Why Time Safari?)

If you've tried Kickstarter, you've experienced the excitement of initiating fun, fascinating projects.

What about local projects? Projects that your friends and family want to do – especially the younger friends and family. Those are the things that provide true education, and doing them together builds strong connection.

But those don't change the world.

Do they?

One Example

E D Nixon was a 20th century activist for black rights. In 1944, he led hundreds of people on a march to get the right to vote, and he did get to vote the next year, so he had some experience. In 1950, he got together with Jo Ann Robinson and they worked on plans to challenge discriminatory practices on buses in Montgomery, Alabama. It's both humorous and admirable to see his own prejudices side by side with his respect for talent: once he told his secretary, "Women don't need to be nowhere but in the kitchen," to which she retorted, "Well, what about me?" Obviously flustered, he backpedaled lamely: "I need a secretary and you are a good one."

In the next few years, he and Jo Ann had some promising potential incidents involving arrests, but they weren't ideal for a winning case. Finally, 5 years later on December 1, 1955, that same secretary was on a bus and was ordered to give up her seat to a white person, and she refused and was arrested. That was Rosa Parks. Her bravery is a thing to behold; she related how "there were several cases of people that I knew personally who met the end of their lives without even a ripple being made publicly by it." Three of her fellow black passengers moved to the back after being ordered to give up their seats, but Rosa simply moved closer to the window seat and stayed sitting.

E D Nixon (center) with Martin Luther King (left) and Rosa Parks (right)

After her arrest, Nixon called local ministers together and and a boycott was organized the next Monday... after which they decided to continue, and people followed, despite the hardship – for over a year. That was all in the face of persecution for helping one another; for example, the city passed an ordinance mandating that all drivers had to charge some minimum amount for their services, in order to quash the rampant mutual aid that cropped up.

Those early plans by Nixon and Robinson helped inspire that lone act by Parks, and they all ignited a wave of activism that profoundly influenced American society and politics, and continues to this day.

So, the answer is: those small-scale actions do change the world, spreading organically and determinedly. Despite the grand schemes of nations and organizations and the wealthy, the motivation of individuals and small groups who have aligned purposes are what actually makes the world progress – especially when the action is difficult and sustained.

Time Safari's Sweet Spot: Simple Offers

Kickstarter helps get random people's investment.

Just Serve helps get random people's volunteer time.

In contrast, Time Safari works on your immediate connections, for smaller projects to begin. You must onboard through someone else. It is a way to start growing experience and an affinity network without much friction: money is not necessary, just time and attention.

Time is a much more precious commodity. Now, before you say that you don't have enough time, think: where do you want to spend your time? I bet you wish you could spend more time in creative, interpersonal work and play. That's work that energizes you. So let's make that a priority. Time Safari is meant to keep that in your face. It's not for sharing any kind of thoughts or media: the posts focus on gratitude and build on top of that. It aims to keep your priorities in mind... the next time you scroll for entertainment, maybe something on here will make you consider some other activity.

It is designed to be ridiculously easy to start. (We admit that it could be even easier because we don't put much of your data on our servers and we don't correlate with your other accounts, but we're not quite ready to apologize for that.) It requires no other accounts or tokens... the goal is to get to the rewards of collaboration as directly and quickly as humanly possible. So, to begin, projects don't need much investment: after spending an hour on something together, you learn more about the problem and also about one another. Maybe you'll want to do more with that project, or maybe you're not as interested and you'll do something else next. Maybe you'll want to do more with the same people, or maybe that group didn't click and you'll try things with different people next. Growth comes through experimentation.

Play, if you will.

Then comes the more dedicated part: offers, especially offers of time. They are venture funding for these passion projects. They can be as small as you like... even just enough to indicate interest, such as spreading the word. Where other platforms focus on the monetary requirements, Time Safari is much more concerned with the kinds of efforts that align interests and energy.

One key to dedicate really impactful time is to make an offer with conditions. For example, maybe it's only worthwhile if they get another 3 people to join you. Or maybe they need to get some particular skills (like an experienced guitar player) or get some particular tools (like a trailer). Those requirements also help the organizer see what else may be necessary; but most importantly, they ensure that you only give time to projects that you feel will succeed.

Think about how many things in this world can run on aligned interests: production, engineering, infrastructure, computing, analytics, and on and on. How big can such projects get – especially as hobbyists find one another? Offers from people with similar goals grease the engines of exploration and education, which can range from extremely simple to complex – but each providing rewards that cannot be measured.

More Time Safari Features

Beyond that, your collaboration history is something you should own and be able to share. Therefore, the cryptography behind your records is something you can take and demonstrate with other tools. Standard APIs and public schemas and open source enable a world of possibilities. We will keep expanding the integration; right now you can see the data behind each assertion on the app where it shows this icon:

You can store and disclose that data without our servers.

One more differentiator of this tool is the distributed design. Our servers don't track your name or personal information; all of those details are kept on your devices. (Someday we'll even decentralize the discovery and networking pieces.) What's more, there are no gatekeepers to your participation; you are fully empowered to define and search your own criteria (and, someday, even run your own ledger for any community). We aim to connect people as directly as possible, and let them take their computing & storage power back to their homes if they want.

Excellence in Action

Let's emphasize that sweet spot a bit more. Our main motivations come from places other than money. In his book "Drive", Daniel H Pink calls out three areas of our lives that will provide the maximum performance and satisfaction: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. "Autonomy" is self-directed work, the ability to choose how to accomplish goals. "Mastery" is personal improvement & growth in skill. "Purpose" means work that you feel is meaningful.

From another direction, Self-Determination Theory is recognized as important in future organizations, and my son who plays Undertale & Omori explained to me how those games make use of it. It involves three basic needs: autonomy, competence (much like mastery), and relatedness. So this new "relatedness" is close connection with others.

Money brings security and options. Great. But we can organically grow initiatives with a foundation of things like autonomy, mastery, purpose, and relatedness (and let things like money follow). Let's grow those things: find similar project interests, and use offers to discover overlaps and start building.

In Summary

Hopefully it's now even more obvious how, all on their own, simple offers of time and attention bring people closer together – and how they accomplish meaningful goals. Watch activity on Time Safari, and experiment with others to organically grow whatever projects interest you. Pass them to others to see if they're interested. Propose your own. It doesn't matter if many never get any interest! Just by running a large number of trials, you will eventually find the right people & project to impact your family, your friends, your neighborhood, and the world beyond.

Further Activities

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