Hi, I’m Steven.
My endeavours are
guided by my purpose to
make work more human.

abundance

We all have enough, were it distributed well.

In developed nations, we are already in a proto-post-scarcity world. Increasingly, capitalist assumptions of scarcity cease to exist for life’s essentials.

In this environment, a new norm develops. An attitude of generosity, fellow-feeling, giving of oneself such that the whole becomes enriched.

As we evolve toward abundance, I hope we may no longer judge each other by possessions or power, but instead by our acts of service -
to discovery, to the arts, to our fellow human beings.

fellowship

Life is hard.

If one were to accept the Rosseau’s view that humans are born good and let that guide action, we arrive at Mozi’s position: that the fundamental value of humanity should be jian ai 兼愛 - universal care for others without distinction.

That means kindness; that means empathy. That means meeting people where they are in ability, in life, and in mindset.

That means an ever-unlearning of corporatism and hierarchy.

the courage to trust

I attended a graduate program with two hundred peers. The onboarding facilitator asked us to raise our hands if we could be trusted; and to keep them raised if we would trust everybody in the room unequivocally. Two hundred and one hands went up, two hundred hands came down.

The class began to move on, until they noticed my hand up. I stood alone, hand in air, as my peers whispered words like ‘naive’ and ‘idiot’. I asked permission of the facilitator to elaborate:

“I understand that systems can put humans into conflict. I know that people may prove untrustworthy. But I do not want to belong to such a system, to such a group, or to such a world. If I want a better world - and I do - then I have to be the first to trust.”

Nearly twenty years on, I am still showing my peers what that means.

resonance

One day, our bones the hills.

I paraphrase John Adams: “I must study war and politics, so that my children may study business, engineering and medicine, so that their children may study poetry, painting, and pottery.”

With our rising quality of living, perhaps one can achieve all these studies within our allotted span.

Yet - when that time is done and our works are faded into lone and level sands; all that might remain are ideas. These ideas echo in fellows we have shared with, given our trust to, who champion them still; and might one day pass them on.

This resonance is immortality.