Lessons From Buckminster Fuller About Work and Life
If you don’t read the entire article, just know that he was the guy who inspired Epcot’s iconic globe, Spaceship Earth. More importantly, he believed that technology could help better the lives of many people on the planet.
Technology has, in many ways, helped us and, in some ways, hurt us.
Our minds struggle from consumption and stress caused by technology; it’s a harsh reality worth noting, especially since World Mental Health Day.
Being Human and Acknowledging the Challenge We Face
You are here, at this moment, in a room of some kind reading this article.
You are breathing oxygen so graciously provided by nature.
Your flesh, comprised of more than 30 trillion cells (more abundant than the stars in our galaxy), is supporting your inner being.
And your presence is vital.
How does technology support your efforts?
“Quite clearly, our task is predominantly metaphysical, for it is how to get all of humanity to educate itself swiftly enough to generate spontaneous social behaviors that will avoid extinction.” — R. Buckminster Fuller
Turning to history, we see that R. Buckminster Fuller was inspired to do more with less because he acknowledged the Earth had finite resources. Still, a truth that confronts us today; we struggle to get all of humanity to teach itself quickly enough to perform natural human responses that will circumvent extinction.
Yet, we can glean insights from his leadership as a futurist and inventor, where he coined words that supported his work like synergetics and ephemeralization.
Ephemeralization — an accelerating increase in the efficiency of achieving the same or more output (products, services, information, etc.) while requiring less input (effort, time, resources, etc.)
And, Synergetics — the practical study of systems in transformation, focusing on total system behavior unpredicted by any isolated components’ action.
In summation, doing more with less and recognizing that individual efforts are contributions to a greater whole.
Effort, time, information, products, services, and resources are all functions of output and energy exerted to fulfill a mission. By creating value, you are one of them, a passenger on Spaceship Earth.
Bucky hoped that someday the planet’s resources would be equitably divided, and people worldwide would achieve a high standard of living with access to technologically-advanced housing and transportation.
Through his speeches and lecture, he tried to convince people to take the initiative to develop comprehensive design science thinking to begin to address global problems such as poverty, inadequate housing, and unequal distribution of resources. For this reason, many people have called Bucky Fuller a “visionary” who inspired others to think globally.
At bundleIQ, we’re motivated by Buckminster Fuller’s life work. His contribution to the world is timeless, and we still have so much to learn in order to achieve the vision he holds for humanity. With that, we embody his efforts in our mission to help people solve problems faster and with greater understanding than ever before.
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