This morning the Earth-monitor showed a half-fixed bench two streets away. Someone called M. had left an update in the local issue reports:
Bench by the library · Status: paused
I stopped here. The left leg is fine. The screws in the jar under the bench fit. Varnish is in the library shed, green lid. I moved away. — M.
I went and sanded the slats. I didn't get to the varnish. I added an update.
In this version of the world, nobody is in charge of fixing benches. There's no bench department, no maintenance contract, no person whose job it is. Anyone who can help is free to. Nobody is expected to. Nobody is pressured, nudged, or told "it would be nice if someone…". The issue report just says what's broken and what's been done so far.
Stopping is fine
Nobody has to finish what they start. People get tired, busy, bored, or move away.
In the old days, we treated every start like a promise. So people kept going out of guilt or fear long after they wanted to stop. Or they quit quietly and took everything they knew with them.
Vanishing is mostly fine too
People vanish for real reasons: burnout, illness, a crisis, or simply having no energy left to explain. Demanding a tidy goodbye is just a softer kind of guilt.
Better to make vanishing harmless. Work is visible by default. Knowledge isn't stuck in one head. Nothing important depends on one person showing up. Then a note is a kindness, not a duty.
The old world had a warning about this: tipping. It started as a small, optional thank-you. Over time it became expected, and then it was built into people's pay. In some places, not tipping became an insult. A kindness turned into a bill. Any nice gesture can go that way once enough people start counting on it.
Why nothing is expected
If nobody has to do anything, why would anything get done?
Because people aren't lazy by default. Given free time, most of us end up fixing, making, learning or helping with something.
Psychology backs this up. Self-determination theory says people do their best and longest-lasting work when three needs are met:
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Autonomy: it's my choice.
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Competence: I'm getting good at it.
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Connection: it matters to someone.
Pressure works against this. In a classic experiment, children who liked drawing were promised a reward for it. Afterwards, they drew less in their free time than children who weren't promised anything. The reward turned play into work. Guilt and fear do the same thing: they can make people move, but they can't make them care. People driven by them tend to burn out, quit, or do the minimum.
When it starts from inside, it's different. You notice the wobbly bench and think: I could fix that. Nobody asked, so it's yours. That's inspiration. At its best it becomes flow, being so absorbed that you lose track of time. Over a lifetime it becomes what Maslow called self-actualization: growing into who you could be.
So the design of this society doesn't push. It makes things visible and easy to start, then gets out of the way.
The scale
Fine
- 1. Never starting.
- 2. Stopping and leaving a note.
- 3. Stopping silently, with the work visible.
- 4. Drifting off slowly.
Tolerated
- 5. Vanishing from a shared effort.
- 6. Breaking a sincere promise.
- 7. Leaving people who were counting on you, when they can still manage.
Not okay
- 8. Claiming without doing: "that's mine, don't touch it," then gone.
- 9. Lies and locked doors: promising what you knew you wouldn't do, or hiding knowledge, tools or access.
- 10. Leaving harm behind: danger left in place, or someone helpless left with no one.
Everything up to 7 could be softened by being more communicative, hardworking or responsible. That's nice. It shouldn't be expected.
The line
Disappointing someone isn't the same as hurting them. If I expected you to finish and you didn't, that's my expectation, not your crime.
Up to 7, others are inconvenienced or disappointed, but still free to act. From 8 on, they're blocked, misled, or in danger.
Stop whenever you like. Vanish if you must. Just don't leave a trap, a lie, or a locked door.