In my attempts to define the purpose of life I came up with a list of what makes me happy. Or rather an endless list of what has potential to make me happy. I am quite sure, everyone would come up with a very similar list. Noticeably, there is one persistent trait to all items in the list. In order to make me happy it has to be useful, to me or to other people. From here I conclude that the usefulness of what I do, make, or create, leads to happiness. I was relieved to find that great people of both the past and the present have come to similar conclusions.
Eleanor Roosevelt: "Being useful is crucial factor in achieving personal happiness" (many thanks for this and other great readings to Maria Popova from www.brainpickings.org ).
So, usefulness is a key factor in achieving happiness.
Is it possible to measure usefulness?
Eleanor Roosevelt declares that being useful is rewarding in and of itself. I agree with that with a slight correction; being acknowledged for being useful is even more rewarding. Most people will agree with that. Acknowledgments have many different forms. It ranges from simple thanks to monetary rewards. On one hand - getting many thanks is pleasant, but it does not pay bills. On the other hand - getting money as a form of acknowledgement is not always appropriate and also raises at least one question: "how much money is enough for that?". Sure, money helps to be happy. Though, getting more money does not really make a big difference in happiness. As a matter of fact, money cannot be used to estimate such valuables as happiness, love, friendship, or even a simple smile - there is no monetary value in it. And yet, we are talking here about the most valuable part of what we are! The part that makes us different individuals.
I have to find an universal form of acknowledge to measure usefulness of everything.
I am a man of my time. I google questions :) This query yields not a direct answer but witty rich food for brain consumption. The world wide web (www) mostly consists of various freely available content in different media formats, submitted by people for people. It is spiced up by commercial content. The usefulness of each particular entry is defined by the number of users' clicks, comments, likes, hearts, badges, favourites, bookmarks and so on that we generally refer as number of views! The number of views is recorded by 3rd parties and kept as a static number and represents, with less or more accuracy, public interest and therefore usefulness of that particular content with regards to the query. Certainly, this number is not 100% accurate. However, it seems to be the closest number, so far, that search engines can get us to in estimating usefulness. Views, as form of acknowledge equivalent to "thanks', already work very well for makers of free contents!
Is it possible to use views in the ways we use money-the most accepted form of all media exchange?
I ponder about what the views as form of payment would change for us. The reality of our world has many sides. The world wide web is relatively new, a couple decades old, and yet a very important part of our world. And it is increasingly growing in number of users, services and the importance it has in our lives. Sooner or later our online presents become permanent as 24/7. Commercialization of www is a logical step in its development, that requires some form of media exchange. Money it is. However, money cannot serve as media exchange for free contents that has no monetary value! Not surprisingly, many centuries old monetary system that failed many times before and now to serve needs of people, system that gives us poverty, hunger, wars, economic disasters and insecure future prospects is failing to fit needs of www users. Adapting views as a form of media exchange most certainly will define values to otherwise free contents. It does not make views mere substitute for money. Get it right. The power of views goes way beyond of my imagination. It will change every aspect of our society and every person life. Views would render any unuseful stuff extinct. Naturally eliminating all unuseful government structures, financial institutions, reshaping our economy. It will be profitable to make free stuff! Financial funds would not be the object for scientists, makers and inventors. It would make schools, museums, science, public libraries and all social services (including police and army) profitable for as long as people need them! Most importantly, it would change our mentality.
It would take the efforts of many, and a long time to accomplish such enormous change. I have no illusions about that. It would take men of new generation raised free of today's dominating "make money to make money" dogma, to fully implement such changes. It would take men carrying to make everything useful instead of just making it profitable. However, it is up to men of our generation to make the first steps on this path.
The path lays through the art.
We develop as human beings starting our lives by consuming art in the most natural, basic and again - freely available forms. Art is the source of everything men creates and leave by. It is the voice of mom singing lullabies, the words we say, sing and write, the pictures we draw. It is the photos and comments you share on Facebook. It is the videos you upload on YouTube. It is the structures we build. It is the meal we cook. It is everything we enjoy so much and do from our hearts. Every small or big steps we make in our development inspired by no less then work of art. Artists guide us to the future. And it is up to artists to inspire us for any big or small steps to make in our grows. It is up to those who gives us free knowledge and share their skills to make such changes. To them I relay to seed the idea in minds of people and start using views as form of medium exchange.
It seems necessary to keep development of any and all software related to collecting and storing views (as money) under open source licence. This way everyone may contribute to build trusted, safe and simple to use software.
While all forms of arts are important, there are some that seem to have more influence over young people's mind- music and games. And that is where implementation of views as form of money is the most crucial for spreading the idea and actual use of views. For example, teaching kids to use views as rewards can be done in form of online games. Well, it seems to me, the most plausible way to begin with. From online games kids will bring it to reality of our world slowly but surely growing with the idea already in their minds.
For myself...I am lucky to write for people who want to make people happy. I share my works with those who already know that making people happy is the way to be happy. I am talking about you - balloon twisters and clowns, magicians and teachers, moms and dads - artists of all trades. You, as no one else, know how to make your children smile and what it takes to make them happy. Together, we can make the entire world the very best place for them to be. Place where makers rules.
I am Michael Langerman, author of this work, release it under public domain dedication license. And I mean it as never before. You are free to dream and carry out.