An Experiment, Live, at The End of Work

October 13, 2011 at 12:07 pm (By Amba)

An "idea party" over there all day today.  Barbara Sher, whom I assisted many years ago in writing her first wildly popular book Wishcraft, discovered that people could actually reach their impossible dreams by crowdsourcing them (a word that didn't exist yet then)—putting them out there where other people, who don't have our own personal negativity and blind spots, could rather easily come up with ideas we'd never have thought of, and contacts we'd never have found on our own, that added up to a doable new enterprise.

We're trying to adapt that strategy for the post-work era, when the impossible dream often seems to be simply generating an income.  Many of us are going to have to figure out how to do that outside the shrinking "job" structure (we freelancers have a head start, of course, because we've been doing it most of our lives).  The End of Work is one place to refine the strategy.  The blog host, Ron, is the guinea pig.  We'll do more.  It's actually fun and surprisingly easy to come up with ideas for someone else, because you yourself have nothing to lose.  So have at it.  Ron has posted his "ingredients list" — skills and interests — so let's see what we can hypothetically cook up.  Comments will be open all day.  Nutty ideas are welcome (they often lead to less nutty ones), and the only censorship is of cynicism and "this'll never work" negativity.  By all means feel that way if you must — just don't express it at the idea party, because it turns the beer to vinegar.  If you need to vent, do it here.