World That Works is a pattern language that I’ve partially written and recently released as an open artifacts project. It was originally an attempt to find ideas about how the world should work that everyone could agree on, but I’ve come to realize that some world views are just not compatible with what I would like to see happen.
For example, in my mind, it seems obvious that we would want to give our children every possible chance to learn and grow optimally, without the limitations that the older generations are saddled with. In my view, we’re hobbling our kids by teaching them incorrect or outdated information. We’re well-intended, but the process slows down progress.
At the heart of my ideas about children are the assumptions that children are born innocent and good and that they have the innate ability to learn. If we design educational systems that mostly get out of their way, they will likely be better off.
There are people who disagree with those assumptions. For them, a child is born with a tendency to be bad and must be taught wrong from right. For them, my idea is far from ideal and would lead to rampant evil and the collapse of our civilization.
So, I no longer think about World That Works as a set of universal ideas, but simply as a description of my world view. I think many people share my world view and might benefit from seeing it laid out as a set of patterns. Having it detailed in writing makes it possible to discuss the patterns, expand them, and improve them. That’s why I’ve released it as an open artifacts project.
The patterns are available to read at https://worldthatworks.com. If you would like to contribute to the effort, please send me an email with your ideas. I’d be happy to hear what you think, and if I integrate your ideas into the book, I will include your name in the list of authors.
