I think the focus of his post, which is that there are very powerful social forces at play that guide human behavior outside of a monetary transaction, is spot-on -- but it always has been like that.
What I greatly disagree w/ though is whether this is anything new at all or that the world is fundamentally heading towards an "age of abundance".
Why StackOverflow is kicking ass is the same reason we love HN. It's the community. That's it. No flimsy game mechanics. No monetary rewards or points involved (though like any large social group, there are demarcations for roles and status, like the HN karma). It's the gravitational pull of a strong community with shared interests. This is all textbook Seth Godin, nothing new here.
Strong communities have been budding since the dawn of civilization... so it's weird to say that the online world is pioneering this in any way for the offline world. What it is doing though is accelerating the community because of the sheer global scale of the web, which is unprecedented.
Money will always be driving the world, but more community-building tipping points to come.
What I greatly disagree w/ though is whether this is anything new at all or that the world is fundamentally heading towards an "age of abundance".
Why StackOverflow is kicking ass is the same reason we love HN. It's the community. That's it. No flimsy game mechanics. No monetary rewards or points involved (though like any large social group, there are demarcations for roles and status, like the HN karma). It's the gravitational pull of a strong community with shared interests. This is all textbook Seth Godin, nothing new here.
Strong communities have been budding since the dawn of civilization... so it's weird to say that the online world is pioneering this in any way for the offline world. What it is doing though is accelerating the community because of the sheer global scale of the web, which is unprecedented.
Money will always be driving the world, but more community-building tipping points to come.