What Is a Community?

So you wanna be a community superstar? And live large, a big house, 5 cars, you’re in charge?

You’ve come to the right place. If you don’t know what a community is, reading this article will take you from zero to hero.

Do you know those articles that tell you to just do it? That the definition of “community” doesn’t matter? We don’t do that here. Here’s why.

If you want to reach a goal, you create a plan. To create a plan, you have to know what the goal is.

If your goal is to build a community, but you don’t know what a community is, you’re out of luck, friend.

Here you’ll learn what a community is, once and for all. Afterwards, you will be as comfortable talking about communities as you would about a car or a blow dryer. You know what they are and what they do.

Communities are about people. People do stuff. We start by learning how they act alone. Then we move to cooperation, where two or more people act together. Finally, we learn three different ways of cooperating. You’ll learn to see the differences between crowds, groups, and communities.

The philosophy of action is complicated stuff. Smarter people than me have tried. Starting from the likes of Aristotle.

I’ve tried to simplify things as much as possible. It allows you to understand action while saving you from unnecessary academics.

While you learn about action, try to think of real-life situations. Think of your friends, colleagues, and customers having fun, working and interacting with you.

Action is a series of mental and physical moves, acts. For example, painting a wall is action where your mind comes up with a plan, and body picks up a brush.

Anything we do needs our mind and body on some level. Our mind is the driver and our body the vehicle.

But it’s valuable to be aware of mental and physical acts because it helps us see the full scope of human action. As a student of action, noting only physical acts is tempting because they are easy to see. But in reality, a person sitting still can be working their butt off in their mind, thinking.

Just go to a library before an exam. Or to an office after people have had their coffee. You’ll see.

Imagine you see a car for the first time. It’s a metallic box on wheels. Then it moves. It moves without anything pulling it. What’s going on?

Things become clearer when you pop the hood and take a look at the engine. Instead of tiny horses, there are all these parts that work together. Somehow they make the car move. When you study the parts long enough, and how they work together, you understand the whole thing.

That’s why it’s important to break human action into smaller parts, components. It allows us to check what’s under the hood, so to speak.

When you understand how human action works, you can start creating and building it.

Agent is a person who takes action to reach a goal.

Interest is something that an agent sees worth pursuing.

Goal is something that an agent wants to reach to pursue an interest.

Means is a way to reach a goal.

Knowledge allows an agent to identify and make use of a means to reach a goal.

At this point, the agent knows the who, what and how of action. But it isn’t enough to make the agent take action, is it?

Think about it, have you ever been in a situation where you’ve known what you should do, but you haven’t done it? I know I have difficulties abandoning the couch for the gym sometimes.

This leads us to the final component, the why of action.

Motive is a need or a want that moves an agent to take action.

Let’s put the components together with an example.

Kaspar (Agent) wants to paint his living room (Goal). It will make the house more attractive for buyers (Interest). He needs to sell the house for money (MOtive). To paint the living room, Kaspar knows (Knowledge) that he needs to buy paint, a brush, masking tape, and paper from the hardware store (MEans). If his need for money is strong enough, he will get up and go to the hardware store.

The following formula clarifies the process of action and how the different components work together:

A wants G because I and MO.
A knows based on K that G doesn’t happen without ME.
A takes action to ME if MO is strong enough.
A continues action to ME until:
–ME is updated or
–MO isn’t strong enough anymore.

Consider the formula as a recipe for action. Components are the ingredients and steps are the directions for mixing them together.

Finally, let’s look at different types of action. They are divided based on the relation between action and its goal.

Action is making if its goal is to produce a product.

Action is doing if its goal includes action itself.

In a previous example, Kaspar’s goal is to paint his living room. The painted living room is both the goal and product of action. Therefore it’s making.

If Kaspar would want to paint his living room because he likes painting, the situation becomes different. Then the goal of his action would be to produce a painted living room AND the process of painting. His action would be successful (on some level) even if he never completes painting the living room. He would get his painting fix anyway. This kind of action is doing.

You didn’t come here to learn how to kick butt by yourself, did you? You want to learn how to kick butt together. That’s up next.

Cooperation is action where two or more people work together to reach the same goal. Their series of physical and mental acts become action that brings them closer to reaching the goal.

There are three modes of cooperation: I-mode, cooperation-oriented I-mode, and we-mode.

They are based on a person’s approach toward cooperating with other people. The approach determines if the person is cooperating in a crowd, group or community.

I-mode is an approach where a person acts alone to reach a personal goal. Other people are a part of the environment for action. Cooperation is possible if other people happen to have the same goal.

Person decides the goal and means alone. They are independent of other people’s goals and means.

Person may take other people into account so that their actions do not make it more difficult for others to reach their personal goal.

People in I-mode act as individuals. They form a crowd.

Let’s look at an example.

Kaspar, Sofia, and Max are working out at a gym. They don’t know each other. They are there to get themselves in shape. They have decided their personal goals (“get in shape”) and means (“go to the gym”) before bumping into each other.

Seeing each other at the gym doesn’t change their goals or means. They are independent of each other.

Other people are like posters, carpets or other items in the same space. They are a part of the environment for action.

People may take each other into account by waiting for their turn to use a machine, for example. Or using a gym towel. Or placing weights back on the rack. This kind of courtesy allows people to reach their goals without making it more difficult for others.

Crowd member’s action process looks like this:

Step 1

A wants G because I and MO.

Step 2

A knows based on K that G doesn’t happen without ME.

Step 3

A takes action to ME if MO is strong enough.

Step 4

A continues action to ME until:
–ME is updated,
–MO isn’t strong enough anymore.

If you compare this action process to the one in the previous section, you find them identical. That’s because crowd members act alone. Other people just happen to be around. Crowd members cooperate unintentionally, by coincidence, if other people happen to have the same goal.

Cooperation-oriented I-mode is an approach where a person cooperates with other people as a means to reach a personal goal. Person cooperates because it’s the most efficient strategy to reach the goal.

Person decides the goal and means of cooperation together with other people. Cooperation stops if the person sees acting alone or cooperating with another collection of people as a more efficient strategy.

People in cooperation-oriented I-mode act as individuals in a unit. They form a group.

Kaspar, Sofia, and Max are working out at the gym again. They have learned that they have compatible personal goals (“get in shape”). They decide to start working out together, because it helps them get in shape.

They also consider new ways of working out, to complement their gym workouts. Sofia and Max are keen on running. Kaspar agrees to an occasional jog, even though he thinks it’s boring. What is a little boredom every once in a while anyway? After all, Sofia and Max are a great help when they hit the gym together.

Kaspar continues working out with Sofia and Max as long as it’s the most efficient strategy to get himself in shape. If running starts demotivating him and setting him back in his workouts, he will need Sofia and Max to agree on another way of working out together. If they don’t, Kaspar will stop working out with them. He will either continue his workouts alone or find other people to workout with.

Group member’s action process looks like this:

Step 1

A wants G because I and MO.

Step 2

A knows based on K that G doesn’t happen without ME.

Step 3

A knows based on K that cooperating with people X is the most efficient way to ME.

Step 4

A takes action to cooperate with people X to ME if MO is strong enough.

Step 5:

A continues action to cooperate with people X to ME until:
–ME is updated,
-More efficient way to ME is found or
–MO isn’t strong enough anymore.

Group members have an additional step in their action process (Step 3). It’s related to the means of action (ME). Person (A) cooperates with other people as long as it’s the most efficient way to reach their personal goal (G).

We-mode is an approach where a person cooperates with other people as the personal and common goal. Person cooperates with members of the collective because it’s valuable in itself. Person wants to be a member of the collective, and wants to see its action continue.

This kind of action is doing (remember Types of Action).

The collective acts through the actions of its members. Person decides the goal and means of cooperating with other members. They also become the personal goal and means of the person and other members.

People in we-mode act as a unit. They form a community.

Kaspar, Sofia, and Max are working out together at the gym. It’s been so enjoyable that working out together has become as important as getting in shape.

They consider new ways of working out, to complement their gym workouts. Sofia and Max are keen on running. Kaspar agrees to an occasional jog, even though he thinks running is boring. Doing it with Sofia and Max makes it fun and interesting.

Kaspar continues working out with Sofia and Max because he appreciates working out together. It’s okay to workout in different ways because doing them together keeps their community going.

Community member’s action process looks like this:

Step 1

Ac wants G together.

Step 2

Am wants G together because I* and MO**.

Step 3

Am knows based on K that G doesn’t happen without ME together.

Step 4

Am takes action to do their part to ME together.

Step 5

Am continues action to do their part to ME together until:
–ME is updated or
–MO isn’t strong enough anymore.

Ac: Community (“we”)
Am: Member of the community (member of “we”)
*Continued existence of the community
**Belonging to the community

Community members have an additional step in their action process (Step 1). It’s related to the goal of action (G). Person (Am) wants to be a member of the community (Ac). After that, the goal (G) of the community (Ac) becomes the goal of all its members, including the person (Am).