Values create the North Star for our journey, both individually and as a community. We align Principles to our values to create rules that automate our decision-making and make sure our actions align with our values.
I value a person's word. I believe in building trust by being open, honest, and a person of my word. It has been a long journey to learn the importance of being honest with others and, most importantly, myself. I have found that the greatest changes in my life have come from looking inward and being honest with myself.
I value personal liberty and the ability to move about and/or express oneself freely, so long as it is not infringing on the ability of others to live freely, pursue happiness, and realize their purpose. I value the freedom of choice.
I value learning to fish, rather than having someone give me a fish. I value control over my own destiny and independent ownership of my creations, my thoughts, and my being. I believe in self-reliance, autonomy, and self-soverignty, for both individuals and communities. I also believe in providing support and pathways to achieve independence.
I value diversity and inclusion. I believe that the most successful company or community is one that includes people that can share a diverse and unique set of experiences from which others can learn and evolve to create things that serve the needs of more people.
I believe that change starts at the individual level, but it takes a village to succeed. I believe in open source, community projects that allow every person to play an active role in solving their own problems. I believe that each person can use their talents to create blocks on top of which others can build and share their gifts.
I believe in valuing and recognizing active participation, as it is critical to community operations and it helps expedite the rate at which a person finds their optimal path. When we participate, we gain a sense of ownership and responsibility. We we stop participating, things fall apart.
I value time. Time is worth more than money. When someone is willing to give their time to help or teach another, they are giving their most limited resource. I believe in acting quickly and not putting off problems to be solved another day. When we put things off, it hangs over us - it creates overhead - and it starts to limit freedom, agility, and mobility. Eventually, problems become too big to solve and the time commitment is endless. This is when things fall apart, and rebuilding takes up more time.
I value participating remotely to achieve balance in life. We must build technology that allows people to move about freely, while increasing reach for diverse communities to be inclusive and opening new channels for remote participants to meaningfully engage.
I believe that we all have a responsibility to keep our shared environment clean, healthy, and in an equal or better state that we found it. An environment without clutter, litter, and damage is critical to efficiency, effectiveness, and longevity. Clutter creates workarounds, which take up Time.
Transparency builds trust. When people believe that something is hiding below the surface, they have a hard time going all in. This doesn't mean we shouldn live in a world without privacy. People have a right to control access. Systems used for community operations should be open source, as well as alogorithms, so people can trust in governance.
I value equal access to opportunity, equal application of rules or standards, and an equal vote. I believe that every life has equal value and should be treated as such in any decision-making process.
I value work that has been broken down into small, actionable components so traction can be made, progress can be measured, and success can be visualized in a cyclical manner. This allows large numbers of people to participate. Small components also keep us from re-starting at ground zero, which saves Time.
I believe in not giving up when times are really hard or problems feel too big to solve, showing persistence, resilience, and determination to continue breaking things down and starting over until obstacles are overcome and forward momentum is achieved. I believe in bootstrapping and not taking shortcuts.
I value those who are accountable for the good and the bad. For a long time, I blamed others for my failures, but doing so resulted in a lack of learning and growth. We must be honest in our self reflections and accountable for the things we say we will do and for the things that happen under our watch.
I bleieve in the quote, "The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away." The faster we can self-actualize, the sooner we can share our gifts and reach transcendence, as individuals and as a collective community. The greatest gift we can give another is our Time and the knowhow required to grow and live independently. Knowledge is meant to be shared openly.
Without privacy, there is no democracy. You cannot vote if someone is looking over your shoulder. It is hard to work that way. We have a right to live private lives. We are slipping into a world of mass surveillance - both online and with cameras all over our cities (and in our homes). It is not a comfortable way to live. We need to restore privacy. I design systems that are built on promises of privacy so people can live freely.
Health is wealth. Physical and mental health are the foundations for success and happiness. I believe in investing in health and building communities where health is at the core of operations. It starts at the individual level.
Knowledge is the currency of the future. Education infrastructure is critical to enable thriving communities, and that infrastruture must enable a frictionless transfer of knowledge. When people teach one another, the community becomes wealthier.
I value life. Each life has equal value. We should focus on what is living and the needs or requirements of those living beings.
I value evolution, change, and the ability to re-build.
I value ownership, equity, and control. This is how true wealth is built and a voice or vote is guaranteed.
I value open communication, responses, and feedback, which are critical to help people learn, evolve, and add the most value.