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TRY "RANDOM HELPING" [DECENTRALIZED VOLUNTEERING]

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TRY "RANDOM HELPING" [DECENTRALIZED VOLUNTEERING]

An Improvement on "Pay-it-Forward"

Adam Golding
Jul 12, 2022
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TRY "RANDOM HELPING" [DECENTRALIZED VOLUNTEERING]

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[from: https://www.facebook.com/adamgolding/posts/pfbid0cLdjQJkwnoHNcJPEDmaxv1UwK3v3rLHAkhgqzuBJWka9K4Ae23vuyvvZuDNpys9Ll]

Okay I invented a new game/religion, it's called "RANDOM HELPING" [or “DECENTRALIZED VOLUNTEERING”] and it's an improvement on "Pay it Forward" where some players still receive no help--this is a form of "Decentralized Volunteering" where everyone is volunteering for each other, not for a central cause with one definition:

RANDOM HELPING 0.1

- n players write their name on n cards, and the deck is shuffled

- everyone draws a card and reshuffles, and redraws if they draw their own name,

- ask the person you drew for their contact information, and see how you can help them

- players vote on when to draw again [eg: weekly]

- help is not to exceed 2 hours of time weekly, or $30 of personal financial support

- for redundancy, each player can put their name in *twice* and draw TWO cards, again redrawing if they draw their own name

- for volunteer efforts where no-shows are important to disincentive, up-to-$30 deposits can be refundable if you show up--some hacker conferences have had refundable tickets in this manner

With Pay-it-forward, you are also helping people at random, but there is no guarantee that everyone gets help or that the distribution is uniform--this is not to say that everyone needs the same amount of help, some players will need help helping someone else. [aka: “Help can be transitive.”] Try it! Please let me know what problems you find with it!!

🙂

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TRY "RANDOM HELPING" [DECENTRALIZED VOLUNTEERING]

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TRY "RANDOM HELPING" [DECENTRALIZED VOLUNTEERING]

adamgolding.substack.com
Alanna Johnston
Jul 26, 2022

I like the concept and would enjoy seeing Random Helping in action. My only concern was that folks wouldn't accept help - I'm one of those independent types that says, "Oh no, everything is fine!" when I'm asked if I want/need help. But I'm intrigued by this improvement to "pay it forward".

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