Finding inspiration for the future of communities
Let’s look to the past, and to noted visionaries, for ways to innovate–simply–in a digital world
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Carol and I are still on vacation—taking a break, having fun, hiking and biking, and every now and then, gathering ideas for this newsletter. It is hard not to. In Italy and Croatia, the past is everywhere: carved in stone, made into pasta, wired into daily life. Ancient and modern technologies converge in the presence of art and the dawn of science.
In this edition, I turn to Steve Jobs—not just to celebrate what he built, but to study how he thought. His intuition, his values, and his creations offer direction—and hope—for the future of communities. My work here is a collaboration of research and reasoning with ChatGPT. I don’t presume to know what Steve Jobs would do, but humbly, I ask how we might innovate if we could walk in his shoes.
Channeling intuition
I remember the first time I experienced a Macintosh. I was serving aboard the USS Carl Vinson, helping to operate and maintain the twin, state-of-the-art nuclear reactors that powered our Navy’s newest Nimitz-class aircraft carrier. Several of my co-engineers had Macs, spending many hours playing with its capabilities, especially MacWrite and MacPaint. Mostly, MacPaint. It was fun. Our work was hard, and Steve Jobs’ innovation offered an escape. Maybe a fantasy. I think that was its power. Fun over function. Creating, not typing. And though I barely grasped the revolution, I could feel the shift: digital over analog.
Jobs was just getting underway, founding, building, and disrupting. He created or remade at least eight or nine industries: personal computing, animation (Pixar), music (iPod and iTunes), mobile communications and computing (iPhone and iPad), traditional retail (the Apple Store), online retail (the App Store), and virtual data storage (iCloud.)
Add to that the global supply chain. Apple designed in California, manufactured in China, shipped everywhere. Global commerce, defined. Apple’s innovations changed our lives, beautifully, with an elegant balance of breakthrough technology and artful design.
Jobs wasn’t just an innovator. He was something rarer—a kind of magician, as Walter Isaacson describes him in his seminal biography, Steve Jobs:
Was he smart? No, not exceptionally. Instead, he was a genius. His imaginative leaps were instinctive, unexpected, and at times magical. He was, indeed, an example of what the mathematician Mark Kac called a magician genius, someone whose insights come out of the blue and require intuition more than mere mental processing power. Like a pathfinder, he could absorb information, sniff the winds, and sense what lay ahead.
Our challenge is to channel Jobs’ intuition and creative spirit into the work of innovating communities. To explore what that might look like, I asked ChatGPT to consider a question—and do a little research—on the philosophy behind his legacy:
What if Steve Jobs’ next great innovation wasn’t a product, but a community, designed with the simplicity and soul he demanded of everything he built?
From that starting point, we named three principles Jobs might apply, not to the next device or platform, but to the future of community itself. Each one follows below, paired with a reflection on what it could mean for the way we gather, live, and work together.
Innovation isn’t about efficiency, it’s about meaning. In my last edition, Sydney Berry suggested that beauty salons are building on tradition to offer space for community conversations and services that promote health and well-being. These aren’t just new offerings, they’re signals that innovation, at its best, deepens our sense of belonging and purpose.
Protect the soul of community from the commodification of digital life. Jobs knew the risks. He kept technology at arm’s length in his own home, not out of fear, but respect. When innovation is driven by markets instead of meaning, it turns people into users and presence into metrics. Communities must choose differently, preserving spaces where connection is lived, not tracked.
Radical simplicity in service of community is revolutionary. Jobs pursued simplicity not as style, but as substance, as a way to honor people’s time, focus, and trust. Communities deserve the same clarity. When we strip away the clutter, we make room for what truly connects us.
Enough about history. Let’s talk about the future.
And enough about products. Let’s embrace communities.
A way forward
I still have some vacation to finish. When I’m back, I’ll share an edition about a new project I first mentioned in Catalyzing community, an exploration of how a community might eat its way to better health and well-being.
In the meantime, buy the book. Think about innovating communities. Channel Steve Jobs. And if you’d like to move ahead, I offer three signposts, things to notice and questions to carry, as a field guide for spotting opportunity where you live and work:
Look for where efficiency has eclipsed meaning. Find a business, service, or public space in your community. Has speed replaced care? Has scale replaced trust? Ask what it would take to design for belonging, not throughput. For beauty, not just cost savings.
Find a place that could become a screen-free zone. It might be a library table, a salon chair, a park bench, or a porch swing. Anywhere that could invite people to connect face-to-face. No portals. No frictionless user experience. Just presence, connection, and analog time.
Watch for complexity that hides what matters. Pick one part of your leisure, your work, or your gatherings—and simplify it. Strip away what doesn’t serve people. See what remains. That’s where the human connection lives. That’s where to begin.
Above all, remember that communities create value by connecting us with what makes us human–with food and water, with energy and work, with the places we call home, and ultimately, with ourselves. I consider this statement the first principle for innovating communities. If you agree, use it. If you don’t, help me make it better.
Signing off for now. If you’d like to talk, I’d be delighted to hear from you. Email me at mark.dancer@n4bi.com, send a DM on Substack, or leave a comment at the bottom of this newsletter.
Together, let’s build thriving communities—one innovation at a time.