The Inevitable Demise of Untended Communities

Whether it’s an online community, a workforce, or a democracy, communities need attention

Scott Monty

Mar 15, 2023

∙ Paid

The painting as described by the artist: "The scene of Desolation. The sun has just set, the moon ascends the twilight sky over the ocean, near the place where the sun rose in the first picture. Day-light fades away, and the shades of evening steal over the shattered and ivy-grown ruins of that once proud city. A lonely column stands near the fore ground, on whose capitol, which is illumined by the last rays of the departed sun, a heron has built her nest. The doric temple and the triumphal bridge, may still be recognised among the ruins. But, though man and his works have perished, the steep promontory, with its insulated rock, still rears against the sky unmoved, unchanged. Violence and time have crumbled the works of man, and art is again resolving into elemental nature. The gorgeous pageant has passed — the roar of battle has ceased — the multitude has sunk in the dust — the empire is extinct." — *The Course of Empire - Desolation* by Thomas Cole, 1837 (Wikipedia - public domain)

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“This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.” — T.S. Eliot, 1925

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It’s tempting to think that entities we’ve created will simply go on forever, like perpetual motion machines that require neither maintenance nor intervention.

But the stark reality is quite the opposite. Nothing is permanent.

Humans are natural tinkerers, and we need to pay attention to the things we build to improve upon them.

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As an engineer, Henry Ford knew this. He tinkered in his shed at 58 Bagley Avenue in Detroit until he created the Quadricycle in 1896.

He created Ford Motor Company in 1903 (after two false starts with other companies), introduced the Model T in 1908, and kept tinkering with the assembly process until he introduced the moving assembly line to the auto industry in 1913.

“The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all but goes on making his own business better all the time.” — Hen…

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