Will Ruddick

What does a bioregional economy look like when local commitments, community pools, and national currency can be seen moving together? I made a short video walkthrough following five Chama pools near Kiriba and Takaungu across 4,606 public Celo events. It explores how locally governed vouchers, shared liquidity, community activity, and national currency can connect without collapsing into one currency or institution. There is a full article explaining this video and software (ask me if interested)

Yesterday, I was deeply grateful to participate in the Global Gross National Happiness Forum alongside the Drinchengang Regenerative Village (DRV) team. Today, November 11, Bhutan celebrates the 71st birthday of His Majesty Jigme Singye Wangchuck, the Fourth King, as well as Constitution Day and Gross National Happiness Day. Returning to Bhutan has given me a deeper appreciation for his legacy. His leadership helped guide Bhutan toward constitutional democracy, while advancing a vision of development that places human wellbeing, culture, community, and the natural environment alongside economic growth. Six months after our last visit, it has also been wonderful to see the progress made by the DRV team. My sincere congratulations to everyone whose patience, dedication, and hard work are bringing this regenerative vision to life. But perhaps what moves me most about returning to Bhutan is something much simpler. We are here again with our daughter, and there is no lack of hands to hold her. It reminds me of our home in Kenya, which I miss dearly, where neighbors and friends were likewise always ready to carry her, care for her, and make her feel welcome. There is something beautiful about finding that sense of belonging in more than one place. Our daughter is too young to understand constitutional democracy or Gross National Happiness. But she is already learning what it means to be welcomed, cared for, and surrounded by community. Perhaps that is one of the most meaningful ways to experience the aspirations behind GNH. With gratitude to His Majesty the Fourth King, the DRV team, and our wonderful communities in Bhutan and Kenya. willruddick.substack.com/p/m…

What can slave-making ants teach us about the evolution of human societies? From parasitism and conquest to cooperation, collective security, and shared prosperity. Two remarkable ant studies left me wondering: What if our greatest evolutionary achievement is learning to protect and sustain one another without having to raid the next nest? A little biology, history, commons governance, and (unexpectedly) insurance willruddick.substack.com/p/a…

One of the greatest gifts science gave me was permission to question. To question experts, to question authority, and perhaps most importantly, to question my own beliefs. Growing up, it gave me the courage to question the religion of my parents and extended family. These were not always comfortable questions. But science helped me see that making someone uncomfortable by asking an honest question was not necessarily a bad thing. It offered me a way to approach the unknown without needing to fill it with certainty. To admit, without shame, that I simply don't know. To change my mind when I discover something new, and to recognize how easily I can fool myself. And somehow, the less I needed to be certain, the more room I found for awe. Awe at what we can discover, what we may never fully understand, and what we can communicate, question, and share with one another. That is the science I fell in love with. Not a rigid method or a collection of unquestionable truths, but an invitation to remain curious, honest, and humble together.

“A fair booty makes many a thief.” The more you hoard, the more you make the theft worth doing.

“The scientific method” might be one of science's most successful myths. Not because science doesn't work. But because the idea of ONE universal recipe for discovering truth seems rather unscientific. Dr Iain McGilchristist argues that great discoveries don't come from following the scientific method. My reaction: Who exactly is he arguing with? Richard Feynman famously said, “Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.” I love this! Carl Sagan warned that skepticism itself could become dogma. Edmund Husserl questioned how our methods acquire meaning in the first place. In my own investigations into economics, I've tried representing rotating labor associations in Kenya as protocols. It's wonderfully satisfying to turn human cooperation into diagrams, rules, and equations. Until someone asks: Whose memory counts? Who gets to refuse? What did we leave out? I can make the model more elegant. That doesn't necessarily make it more true. Perhaps scientific humility begins when we're willing to hear: “That's not what we meant.” A slightly irreverent reflection on science, certainty, four great thinkers, and why I keep making diagrams anyway. Read More: willruddick.substack.com/p/s…

Thankful for this immersion. And getting to learn ecosystem and social soil building together with Aude Péronne Njambi Njoroge Joyce Kamau Amina Godana and all our neighbors. More here on the Roots of the Future: What Do We Choose to Carry Forward? grassecon.substack.com/p/roo…

What happens when a local marketplace is controlled by its community … not by one person? In my latest Cosmo-Local Credit Unboxing, I take the Health Market from the previous video and turn it into a community-controlled Commitment Pool. The dentist transfers control to a shared multi-signature wallet. The farmer, mechanic, and dentist become its three signers, with a two-out-of-three approval rule. Individually they can deposit food, dental-care, and vehicle-repair Vouchers Together, they can: -Approve which Vouchers the Pool accepts -Set a credit limit for each Voucher -Continue exchanging what they offer for what they need No single member can make these important decisions alone. This shared control can give members more confidence to contribute additional Vouchers, welcome new participants, and grow a community marketplace under rules they manage together. One Pool. Three signers. Two signatures required. Shared responsibility. youtu.be/NxI23NCVZVU?si=GaTd…

I am in love with the experience of the nuanced distinction between experience itself and reflective awareness of experience. ... reflecting on that here. @jordanwaparker

Promises (commitments) are social arrangements that can be reconsidered Graeber concludes that societies need ways to renegotiate, forgive, and reorganize obligations when circumstances change. He argues for debtor protections and democratic influence over which promises are made, kept, or revised.

Promises (commitments) are social arrangements that can be reconsidered Graeber concludes that societies need ways to renegotiate, forgive, and reorganize obligations when circumstances change. He argues for debtor protections and democratic influence over which promises are made, kept, or revised.

Graeber argues that physical coinage expanded alongside armies and state taxation, which created demand for coins (what we often call money today). He contrasts periods dominated by coinage with periods characterized by credit systems, including medieval commercial networks.

Credit and obligations preceded coinage Graeber rejects the familiar progression from barter to money to credit. He argues that people were maintaining accounts of what they owed one another long before widespread coin use. Villages relied on memory, trust, recurring relationships, and periodic settlement.

Graeber helps explain why credit, reciprocity, and mutual obligations are fundamental to economic life, and why those relationships become dangerous when debt is detached from care and turned into an instrument of domination.

The Revolution Will Begin With the Laughter of a Child Our three-month-old daughter has an absolutely GLORIOUS sense of humor. It starts with an eyebrow. Sometimes two. Her eyes change. Something shifts. The corner of her mouth begins to rise. And then... AN ERUPTION OF JOY! 🌈 Gasps, screeches, arms and legs flying everywhere. Her whole little body seems to be in on the greatest joke in the universe. I start laughing. She laughs (or gasps) even more. I laugh harder. And I wonder... what on earth is so funny?! What is she experiencing? What new possibility has she discovered? Meanwhile, I'm over here organizing, planning, debating, defending my positions, and getting terribly, terribly SERIOUS. When did being responsible become synonymous with being grim?! My daughters are my teachers. Humor gives me freedom from our own perspectives. The freedom to be surprised. To be wrong. To see things differently. To find joy even when the world is difficult. ... achievement matters to me. Building things matters. Changing the world matters. But her laughter reminds me WHY we strive in the first place: to build lives and a world where love, wonder, and joy can flourish. Perhaps the real revolution is remembering what all our revolutions are for. My daughter has no manifesto. No PowerPoint. No reading assignments. Just one raised eyebrow and an avalanche of joy. And I'm taking notes. ❤️ More sillyness here: willruddick.substack.com

Money’s institutions form a reinforcing loop. We live in the curves of its intestines. Same digestion, same recirculation. Programming another metabolism is possible ....... just not the one that already swallowed us.

The protests in France affect me emotionally. What I feel deeply when I see the anger in the streets is that some part of it comes from knowing that a good life is possible and seeing it become less reachable. My family and many of my ancestors are French. During a recent visit to rural Normandie, I was struck by how well housed, cared for, and well fed (VERY WELL!) the people around me seemed. I felt I was witnessing something close to the American Dream. .... yet I know many people experience a VERY different France. How do we build institutions that sustain a good life, and how do we keep the power to change them when their commitments begin to fail? I've been exploring this through a Commitment-based Political Economy. We make promises to one another. We entrust people with authority, resources, and responsibility. Sometimes leaders protect us and help others become capable of leading. Sometimes that same power becomes concentrated, and our dependence becomes the very reason we cannot change things. And what happens when institutions outlive their leaders, or when AI itself becomes a persistent steward? Does exercising leadership leave more people capable of caring for and governing their communities, or fewer? I feel love for the institutions that care for us, anger when that care is withheld, tears for what cannot be repaired, and enormous joy when someone else shows up to help. I want us to build institutions that endure, while keeping the capacity to question, repair, and renew them alive in all of us. And for the sake of our health and sanity, to sometimes put the work down, eat VERY WELL, and laugh together. I've written a longer reflection on all this, drawing on France, Kenya, commitment pooling, and our shared responsibility to protect one another. willruddick.substack.com/p/c…