The Whole Earth Catalog – a revolution
Over 50 years ago, Stewart Brand launched the Whole Earth Catalog. Steve Jobs, at a commencement speech at Stanford, described it like this: “It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along. It was idealistic and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.” It was indeed a valuable reference tool for people looking for information, tools, ideas around self-sufficiency and DIY (do it yourself) ways of life. Jobs closed his speech with the words quoted on the back cover of the 1974 final edition of the Whole Earth Catalog: “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”
Going back to the beginning, one of the early editions of the catalog had one of the first color photos of earth from space. Appropriate! The photo above is not the cover photo but is from the same 1968 Apollo 8 mission.
Astronaut Edgar Mitchell, involved in several Apollo missions, says that in seeing the photo:
The Whole Earth Discipline, a renewed dimension
Grabbing politicians by the scruff of their necks is tempting, especially today when we see the abuse of power in many countries around the world and the damage inflicted on the majority of humans in the world. More on that later.
In the meantime, in 2009, Stewart Brand wrote Whole Earth Discipline and explained “the Whole Earth Catalog encouraged individual power; Whole Earth Discipline is more about aggregate power.”
The whole earth vision, unfortunately, has been lost. We need a new whole earth vision on planet Earth, one where people have access to what they need to live healthy, safe and purposeful lives. One where humans live in harmony with other species in the biosphere.
Baby steps in the right direction
My interest in the whole earth dimension started with the emergence of the “gig mindset” I observed several years ago during my research about the organization in the digital age. (See The long story on my website netjmc.) In my book – The Gig Mindset Advantage, a Bold New Breed – I talk about how gig mindsetters, bold employees who question the status quo, propose radically new ways of working and are evolving while mobilizing others to join them in a new way of working. For them, the whole earth perspective means the internal organization and the external environment are no longer two separate worlds.
In Whole Earth Discipline published in 2009, Stewart Brand says “the Whole Earth Catalog encouraged individual power; Whole Earth Discipline is more about aggregate power.” My concept of gig mindsetters working together is a starting point to building this reality.
