Collaboration

This article is a result of an inspiration from Yuval Noah Harari. In his words, "The Sapiens secret of success is large-scale flexible cooperation. This has made us masters of the world. But at the same time it has made us dependent for our very survival on vast networks of cooperation." I am trying to put this in context to our YellowBag Foundation's work on cloth bags.

For the last six years, in one of my endeavors, I have been trying to build a system of cooperation. I thought companies, small tailors and people with professional skills shall cooperate and make simple cloth bags reach end consumers. To be able to do, we want tailors, cutters, printers, helpers and housekeepers to cooperate.

Sounds like something not really interesting? Sounds like a thing done and dusted by numerous people across the globe everyday. Well, under normal conditions there are many resources involved to get this cooperation done. It is not people -people who cooperate. It is manipulated people -manipulated people who generally cooperate.

We were trying not to manipulate them much. We weren't trying to link their salary to their performance. We weren't trying to attach a supervisor to them to scold them and push their limits. No carrots, no stick. Few of my friends called it a no-brainer. We were trying to see if people had the feeling within themselves to cooperate, emerge stronger, last longer.

In many days, I felt people do have that drive from within. In many days, I felt otherwise. On good days, I extended my thanks to the divinity in my people. On bad days, I accepted the not-so-moral social framework we all live in.

This is an ongoing experiment with cooperation. Humanity need to try all that is possible to make life easier for themselves and friendlier for lives around. There is no conclusion to it. There is only depth and meaning in trying. It is an ongoing effort to survive, so is life.