Lessons from Jim Rutt

Jim Rutt, a technologist, entrepreneur, and thinker, has shared a wealth of knowledge through his podcast, "The Jim Rutt Show," and various interviews and writings. His ideas often revolve around the concepts of "Game B," a proposed alternative to our current societal systems, complexity science, and the future of technology and humanity.

Learnings

Game B as a New Societal Operating System: Game B is conceived as the successor to "Game A," which represents the current Western civilization's status quo. It is envisioned as a new social operating system that is self-organizing, network-oriented, decentralized, and metastable. [1][2]
The Goal of Game B is Human Flourishing: The ultimate aim of Game B is to create a society that emphasizes human well-being, allowing every individual to live a life of autonomy and dignity, irrespective of their background or endowments. [2]
Honesty as a Winning Strategy: In Game B, a core value is to create a system where living a life of honesty and good faith is a successful strategy, unlike in Game A where it can often be seen as a weakness. [2]
The Importance of "Proto-B" Communities: The transition to Game B is envisioned through the creation of "Proto-B" communities, which are small, experimental groups that begin to live by Game B principles. [1]
Failure is an Option in Experimentation: The development of Game B will involve numerous parallel experiments, and it is expected that some of these will fail. This process of trial, error, and redesign is a powerful metastrategy for progress. [2]
Complexity Science as a Tool for Understanding: Complexity science is the interdisciplinary study of complex systems and their emergent behaviors. It provides a framework for understanding how things work in the real world, which is crucial for designing new societal systems. [3][4]
Moving Beyond Zero-Sum Games: Game A is characterized by zero-sum competition. Game B aims to move beyond this by fostering cooperation and creating systems where collective success is prioritized. [5]
The Need for "Coherent Pluralism": Within the Game B framework, "coherent pluralism" is the idea that multiple perspectives and ways of life can coexist and interact constructively, fostering a resilient and adaptive society. [6]
Liquid Democracy as a Governance Model: Rutt has explored the concept of liquid democracy, a system where individuals can either vote directly on issues or delegate their vote to someone they trust, as a potential governance model for Game B. [1]
The "Doom Loop" of Money-on-Money Return: He critiques the current financial system's focus on "money-on-money return" as a "doom loop" that drives many of the problems in Game A, such as environmental degradation and social inequality. [4][7]
Optimizing for Human Wellbeing Within Planetary Limits: A central theme in Rutt's thinking is the need to shift our societal focus from pure economic growth to optimizing for human wellbeing while respecting the planet's ecological boundaries. [4][7]
The Hacker Mindset for Problem-Solving: Rutt advocates for a "hacker mindset," which involves reverse engineering problems, experimenting with solutions, and not being afraid to break things to understand how they work. This approach is seen as vital for innovation and creating a better future.
Social Media Moderation: Decorum vs. Content: Rutt argues for a distinction between moderating "decorum" (how people communicate) and "content" (what they communicate). He believes platforms should enforce rules against harassment and threats but should not censor points of view. [8]
The Dangers of Premature Convergence: Drawing from evolutionary computing, Rutt warns against "premature convergence," where a system settles on a suboptimal solution too quickly. He argues for a greater emphasis on exploration and learning before exploitation. [9]
The Power of Self-Organization: Both in natural systems and in human societies, self-organization is a powerful force. Game B is predicated on the idea that a better society can emerge from the bottom up, rather than being designed from the top down. [1][2]
AI Ethics and the Future of Intelligence: Rutt engages deeply with the ethical implications of artificial intelligence, exploring how to develop AI that is beneficial for humanity and aligned with our values. [10][11]
The Importance of Interdisciplinary Thinking: To solve the world's most complex problems, we need to draw on insights from a wide range of fields, including science, technology, philosophy, and the humanities. [10][12]
Reclaiming Cognitive Sovereignty: In an age of information overload and manipulation, Rutt emphasizes the importance of "reclaiming our cognitive sovereignty," which means developing the critical thinking skills to navigate the information landscape and form our own judgments. [1]
The Role of Technology in Societal Transformation: While critical of how technology is often used in Game A, Rutt sees it as a crucial tool for building Game B, particularly in facilitating communication, coordination, and the creation of new social structures. [13]
A Bias Towards Action: Rutt encourages a "bias towards action," urging people to become "social entrepreneurs" who identify needs within the Game B movement and take the initiative to address them. [2]

Quotes

On the nature of Game B: "Game B is something that doesn't yet exist – it's what comes next." [1]
On the flaws of the current system: "Humanity is in the midst of a world historical transition, which will likely kill all of us. See Mad Max. But just might end up in a truly amazing future. See Star Trek." [9]
On the goal of societal change: "The goal of GameB is a metastable society emphasizing human wellbeing built on good values that we will be happy to call home and we will be proud to leave to our descendants." [2]
On social media moderation: "The critical distinction is between moderation of 'decorum' (some might alternatively call it 'behavior') versus moderation of 'content.'" [8]
On the problem with current social media: "Concerns about personal attacks, harassment, threats, bullying, and so on fall under 'decorum.' Think of it as a set of rules for how users of a platform or service communicate, irrespective of what they are trying to communicate." [8]
On free speech: "Points of view should be allowed, period, even if they're distasteful, even if they're very strong minority views." [14][15]
On the problem with online discourse: "I am quite strongly opposed to the, call it, the conventional wisdom of the big platforms that they have got this soft censorship that they try to hide, but clearly they have an agenda." [15]
On the future of social media: "I am cautiously optimistic that as the S-curves top out on adoption of social media and smartphones we'll start to develop social norms to minimize the harm and maximize the benefit." [16][17]
On the need for new institutions: "Game B's primary objective is to foster a decentralized, cooperative society, free from dominance hierarchies, where collective intelligence can be harnessed to tackle complex, large-scale problems." [5]
On the drive for Game B: "The feeling that putting on a suit and tie and going to work in a cubicle was a fundamental violation of one's own sovereignty."
On the limitations of Game A: "GameB assumes a values system such that living a life of honesty and good faith will be a good thing, not the strategy of a sucker as it so often is in GameA." [2]
On the nature of complex systems: "The great value of complexity science is that it's about how things work and what makes things real." [16]
On societal evolution: "Game B is a meta-protocol for hyper-collaboration." [9]
On the pace of change: "It's very interesting to me that those principles turned out to be right. They just had to have a different set of people on different set of technology tools and a different mindset." [9]
On the role of the individual in Game B: "We need to be self-starters and 'social entrepreneurs'." [2]
On the experimental nature of Game B: "Experiment in parallel. Share results. Redesign and try again. That cycle is a hugely powerful metastrategy." [2]
On the vision for Twitter: "Focus on making Twitter the premier sense making platform for the human race." [14]
On the problem with the advertising model: "In my heart of hearts, I would prefer no advertising at all. I've got a strong sense that the internet went down the wrong road once the cost of network and the cost of computing became low enough that services could become ad supported." [15]
On de-platforming: "I am very strongly against this idea of de-platforming." [15]
On intellectual curiosity: "I think any person that's trying to make sense of the world ought to have a wide view on what people think, even people that they loathe." [15]
On the design of future societies: "Future societies must have families with small children at the core of their design." [1]
On the nature of truth in the digital age: "What's the difference between me saying, Jim Rutt is a racist and Jim Rutt's post sounded racist to me? I think there is a big difference." [15]
On the challenge of our times: "The situation in Game A has become more obviously worse. And so people are willing to do a bit more work to explore an alternative." [9]
On the need for new economic models: We need a system that is "focused on optimizing human wellbeing within planetary limits." [4][7]
On the power of community: "We have to build culture locally." [6]
On the potential of AI: "Part of the solution to wicked problems will involve the actual growth and development of the consciousness of the change agents themselves." [18]
On the interdisciplinary approach: "True reform in any school community involves structural changes which emerge from shifts within each human participant." [18]
On the nature of innovation: "The greatest innovations often happen with uninterrupted thought." [16][17]
On the challenge of complexity: "To navigate complexity without resorting, this is an obligate or knee-jerk requirement to use a complicated approach." [9]
On personal responsibility in the digital age: "The future of society depends upon our ability to educate people who are willing to get out of the zone on their phone and live life in the real world." [16][17]

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Lessons from Jim Rutt

Learnings

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Written by Antoine Buteau

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