Matthew MillerJul 17, 2025

“We must do away with the absolutely specious notion that everybody has to earn a living.

It is a fact today that one in ten thousand of us can make a technological breakthrough capable of supporting all the rest. The youth of today are absolutely right in recognizing this nonsense of earning a living. We keep inventing jobs because of this false idea that everybody has to be employed at some kind of drudgery because, according to Malthusian-Darwinian theory, he must justify his right to exist. [...]

The true business of people should be to go back to school and think about whatever it was they were thinking about before somebody came along and told them they had to earn a living.”

— R. Buckminster Fuller (March 1970, _New York_ magazine)

Show threadSkirosJul 18, 2025

@mattdm Many thoughts about this 👀

1. I agree in principle

Many people merely accept that they must work for decades to survive, which I find depressing. It may be functionally true, but there are many ways to explain and ground this necessity.

Do you work out of obligation to get that bread (monetary and social worth)? Or are you part of a community, where you're valued regardless of your current contributions?

1/4

Show threadSkirosJul 18, 2025

Visually, you can imagine that the current need to work is just one node. I'm interested in the framework in which this node is embedded. What sort of philosophy do you have to explain why we're here and what we're working towards?

Designing that takes creativity, a view of the future, and above all, human connection.

2/4

Show threadSkiros

2. We aren't freeloaders

I disagree with the idea that geniuses single-handedly make things that magically support everyone. These innovations must be shared, engineered to fit specific use cases, and improved when undesirable and unforeseen effects surface. This is a huge enterprise. We each have a role in speaking up, and adapting these technologies to our local contexts.

So I don't think they are 'supporting the rest', as we all make up this wider infrastructure of support.

3/4

Jul 18, 2025 at 6:01amWeb
Show threadSkirosJul 18, 2025

3. Minor point about school

Some people don't want to go back to school. They like making things, helping people, chasing ambitions. We should recognise these pursuits too.

4/4