Generativity: maybe the most important word we’ll use in the next 10 years. It applies to all aspects of the challenges we face: social, technological, cultural, intellectual, economic.
There’s a big article in the newest Atlantic that got me thinking about it: How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America:
If it persists much longer, this era of high joblessness will likely change the life course and character of a generation of young adults—and quite possibly those of the children behind them as well. It will leave an indelible imprint on many blue-collar white men—and on white culture. It could change the nature of modern marriage, and also cripple marriage as an institution in many communities. It may already be plunging many inner cities into a kind of despair and dysfunction not seen for decades. Ultimately, it is likely to warp our politics, our culture, and the character of our society for years.
The recession is technically over but we know the situation is more complicated than that. There are no economic models for seeing where we’re going. These are unprecedented times; our thinking will have to be unprecedented too.
Regardless of what you expect from the future, the best way to deal with uncertainty is to make things with ”an independent ability to create, generate or produce content without any input from the originators of the system.” That’s what generativity means.
Technology provides the clearest examples of how generativity works (think of how the internet developed through many contributions that combined in unexpected ways). The concept is often associated with Jonathan Zittrain. Lately there’s been a lot to write and speak out about, with controversies about net neutrality, and open standards, closed vs open platforms, etc.
Look at the iPhone. Much of its success is due to the additional value offered by third party apps. No company alone — not even Apple — would have the imagination or expertise to produce more than a fraction of these.
But Apple’s approach isn’t completely generative. While not completely sterile either, it’s still what Zittrain calls a “tethered appliance.” Dave Winer has been on a role about this dilemma. I think his post on whether we should trust the iPad captures it pretty well. On one hand the iPad is an interesting (and downright seductive) platform to develop for. There’s going to be some awesome stuff that we’re not even able to conceive yet. But on the other hand, Apple controls the platform (and it’s also not tinker-friendly), which puts constraints on how generative it can become.
Putting artificial constraints on generativity can stifle growth (imagine Twitter without third party applications, e.g. TweetDeck, or user-generated syntax, e.g. @replies and #hasthtags), and it can also introduce the risk of wiping out an entire creative system all at once. As Winer pointed out:
The problem is this — if Facebook goes away — and it could, so does everything everyone created with it.
The same might be said about Twitter, but in their case many of the third party applications are already working with similar services, and the service can easily be replicated elsewhere.
As for users, if you’ve merely been collecting subscriber counts, then you run the risk of instantly losing years of work; Twitter might suddenly cease to exist or kick you off by changing its terms of use. But if you’ve been developing genuine relationships with real people, based on the exchange of real value, then you’ll have generated connections beyond Twitter and you’ll have the means to recovering the community you helped build. In that case, change won’t be such a problem, and may even present some great new opportunities.
Note that genuine and generative (as well as genius) come from the same root: “beget.”
Relationships, complex competencies (developed through experience and understanding, not merely simple techniques and repetition) and communities of practice are generative things we can invest in that don’t just retain value in an uncertain future, but tend to create it.
Think about losing your job. What do you have left? It’s best to invest in generative possessions — relationships, reputation, mastery — things that go beyond the bounds of any particular office or shop. These are the things we need to focus our time and energy in. Human civilization has always thrived through generative processes (and keeps failing whenever things became too sterile and closed).
Technology might provide the clearest examples of generativity, but the truest examples are family and community.
Predating the concept of The Generative Internet is the term’s use in the context of social and psychological development. Psychologists Erik Erickson and Dan McAdams are associated with it. David Brooks invoked it a couple of weeks ago in a column about the need for older generations to help the younger ones — not just for the sake of young people, but for the good of society and their own personal well-being:
One of the keys to healthy aging is what George Vaillant of Harvard calls “generativity” — providing for future generations. Seniors who perform service for the young have more positive lives and better marriages than those who don’t. As Vaillant writes in his book “Aging Well,” “Biology flows downhill.” We are naturally inclined to serve those who come after and thrive when performing that role.
Working with the next generation isn’t about giving them (us) absolute freedom, nor is it about controlling or trying to have them do everything as you did before. It’s about providing the framework, then stepping back to see what independent creators will make of it… then stepping in with an updated framework, then stepping back, and so on.
We’re different people in a different world, addressing different challenges, creating new opportunities. You can set certain conditions for growth, but ultimately the best outcomes are generated when those conditions are deliberately open enough for people to play, learn new tricks, make new models, and discover new forms of interaction and value.
No specific solutions are guaranteed to get us through whatever’s brewing for the next few years… whether the next few years turn out better or worse than people expect, we know at the very least a lot will be unprecedented.
The very least we can do to prepare for an uncertain future is give ourselves the freedom and discipline to build — something original — on what came before.
My forthcoming book will elaborate, with a lot more background on this. Make sure you subscribe by RSS or by email or follow me on Twitter to stay in-the-know (hint: it’s in the design stage now).
Pingback: Apple’s Problems: As Long As We Care | Brian Frank