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My Year in San Francisco’s $2M Secret Society Startup

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Re: My Year in San Francisco’s $2M Secret Society Startup

#112
post #98

Attempting to scale a "secret society" has extremely obvious problems...

Freemasonry is achieving this pretty well. I can count the number of movies that make a reference to freemasonry on my fingers with a single hand. In fact I am surprised it was not mentioned in any of the comments or the article.

I would not classify Freemasonry as a secret society. Freemasonry wants new members and while recruiting is (supposed to be) a big no-no, being visible (preferably while bettering your community) is encouraged.

The appearance of symbols in movies and other media are somewhat like rickrolling or "masons were here" tagging, intended for other masons. An allusion to the "We Are Everywhere" motto which is intended well, but ends up sounding ominous to outsiders.

There are appendant bodies within Freemasonry that certainly are secret societies. Even secret from most Masons. Some Googleable (eg. J-----rs), some not. I can answer more specific questions here, if desired.

They have their own legends, symbols, and modes of recognition. Some of these are as small as a few people, and some are worldwide.

Source: Am one.

Edit: I should mention that this is all from my perspective in the US. European Freemasonry works substantially differently and I'm not familiar with perceptions and processes there. Thanks cm2187

Re: My Year in San Francisco’s $2M Secret Society Startup

#114
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Freemasonry is achieving this pretty well. I can count the number of movies that make a reference to freemasonry on my fingers with a single hand. In fact I am surprised it was not mentioned in any of the comments or the article.

I would not classify Freemasonry as a secret society. Freemasonry wants new members and while recruiting is (supposed to be) a big no-no, being visible (preferably while bettering your community) is encouraged. The appearance of symbols in movies and other media are somewhat like rickrolling or "masons were here" tagging, intended for other masons. An allusion to the "We Are Everywhere" motto which is intended well,…

Things might be more transparent in the US, but in Europe, freemasonry:

- only recruits by co-option

- membership and activities are secret

- medias pretty much observe a remarkable silence / lack of curiosity on their activities

Now I am not sure what are the exact criteria to call an organisation secret but it ticks the box to me.

Re: My Year in San Francisco’s $2M Secret Society Startup

#115

So, it's like normal social interactions in something that look like a club or a non-profit but done by a private company that watch you all the time ? That sounds to me like something for people that lack actual interesting social groups...

Of course it is. That's why it's in San Francisco run by techies.

Re: My Year in San Francisco’s $2M Secret Society Startup

#117
post #13

Ahoy! I just stumbled on this. I was the Director of Technology for this set of local bizareness for its last two years. I won't say "I'm happy to answer any questions" because I may avoid some. If you want to ask, maybe hit me up, Especially the tech, especially if you got to play and have a good idea of what we were doing. Also! I think I'm signed up to give a talk in May at ADG. If you're interested in this sort o…

+1 for ADG, which is an amazing meetup, one of the best in the city!

Re: My Year in San Francisco’s $2M Secret Society Startup

#118

What an interesting article. To me, it illuminates two things: the desire for that child-like sense of depth and mystery that many of us still look for in our everyday lives, and the tendency for Silicon Valley money to turn everything it touches into a slide-deck-laden commercial enterprise. Sadly, as much as I love the idea, I see the same thing happening with venture-funded cooperative living arrangements. When I…

Chateau? Loth I can't remember a loth rooftop, PAX? they were great places that shaped me.

I'm guessing Ridge or Kingman.

Re: My Year in San Francisco’s $2M Secret Society Startup

#119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not holding up the co-ops as some sort of paragon, but I think they're clearly a stepping stone in the right direction. At the very least, the cooperative business model has allowed them to (more or less) self-govern and adapt to a rapidly changing populace over the course of many decades. In my experience, they also have a much more diverse population on campus than the dorms or greek houses. While it's true tha…

> The institution itself, as it's currently structured, does not require an outside source of funding to prop it up: the business is a closed loop, and the incentives are aligned. This is categorically untrue. The BSC receives large subsidies from Cal in different forms. To my knowledge the main form is through Cloyne Court, which is owned by the university and leased back to the BSC for a dollar a year (seriously).…

Speaking as a former Cloyne resident and former employee of the BSC, I would say the BSC works in spite of the fact that it is (mostly) run by students. Nearly all of the houses have a transitory nature to them - some of them rarely have students stay for more than a year at a time.

The BSC is more similar to the corporate co-living/nomad house than archagon realizes. Even though the BSC is a non-profit, it treats students like they are expendable. [1] The students don't own the house, they don't get to decide their own fate. It is not actually a true cooperative, employees of the BSC will be the first ones to admit that.

[1] See Cloyne's fate

Re: My Year in San Francisco’s $2M Secret Society Startup

#120
post #13

Ahoy! I just stumbled on this. I was the Director of Technology for this set of local bizareness for its last two years. I won't say "I'm happy to answer any questions" because I may avoid some. If you want to ask, maybe hit me up, Especially the tech, especially if you got to play and have a good idea of what we were doing. Also! I think I'm signed up to give a talk in May at ADG. If you're interested in this sort o…

Seems like the video indicates Nonchalance used a projector, to animate the fable, on the book pages...or was it something more exotic (?) Kind of hard to see.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAazLmTcmb0

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