About

Vision

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.
—Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

I want to start off by asking you a question.

What is the only organic alternative to consumerism?

I have to qualify that question especially since my use of "only" in, the only organic alternative to consumerism, implies there is only one ideal pathway through the forest of consumerism. We should be skeptical. My statement is more rhetorical and emphasizes the urgency of action. You see we have a dominant eusocial replacement term for God and that is GDP or gross domestic product. For if this intricate balance of false equilibrium that we as a species seem to worship could ever be challenged we need to produce something of greater value. As a philosopher, I hold a relatively unique perspective that returning to the Classics on Antiquity holds that value if we take full advantage of her wisdom. I am referring to the embodiment of wisdom and where it all originated from, Ancient Greece. This means embracing a telos, which I go into later in the presentation and choosing iterative improvement over revolution. I say this because we live in a very prosperous time. A time where we, as citizens, still have the option to choose. If the climate crisis and biodiversity collapse is as probable as the experts tell us then wouldn't it be reasonable to prepare and conserve?

I created a series with former CIA director Carmen Medina, who points out our bias tendencies assessing a low probability to extreme or worst-case events is deeply flawed. She knows this from her advisory role as a high-ranking CIA analyst {double check her title} in Afghanistan and Iraq. Just because a future possible event is a worst-case scenario doesn't make it less likely. As far as I can extrapolate, the worst-case scenario is the collapse of humanity. Now, what does all this have to do with the planksip vision?

I will tell you.

For me, the future will be one of scarcity, limited or perhaps governed growth, we will use the mechanisms of the market at our peril for now with limited resources we run the risk of self-annihilation. Our mission, planksip mission is to provide a platform for emerging thought leaders.

We have members with varying opinions, contrarian in fact. We don't cancel for it's antithetical with culture. We co-create and if we can't agree on a method, message or deliverable, we move on and so should you. Our unique membership cooperative has elements of competition in our peer review competitions, our tutoring program is geared more towards nurturing ideas, not egos and the co-creation strategies that we employ are for our individual means of production. We welcome you and hope you can be part of our unique concept.

Mission statement

planksip wants to change what it means to consume. Consumption doesn't have to mean an aggressive drawdown on natural resources or the production that follows. From models of GDP for economic prosperity to a marketplace of ideas, a hierarchy of sorts required to structure our society should be anchored in an exchange of philosophy and the cultural identity of the ideal made manifest.

What is planksip?

As a philosophy and culture media outlet, planksip helps emerging thought leaders with personal branding by co-creating organic content. This could be through long-form discussion videos, cultural commentary or something entirely new.

A New Approach to Publishing

The pressure to routinely publish, to consistently create new content can be wearisome for academics and laymen alike. Though deadlines and the formal standards of academic writing can be highly useful in helping your content come into being and take shape, sometimes you don't want to be overly concerned with limited time, length, jargon, and the prestige of the container your work is published in. You just want to focus on the work and the ideas conveyed in it themselves.

This is the goal of planksip: to impose no such restrictions, to allow for the creation and distribution of authentic, meaningful work, while also receiving a paycheck.

Member Benefits

All members, whether they be in the academic field or are aspiring writers, will have access to these benefits:

For those who publish through our site, 100% profit is yours.
We set up a monthly YouTube podcast for you, in which you can choose from our selection of hosts.
Writing contest. Up to $8,000/month prize money. Winners decided by co-op members.
Every piece of writing gets a private link.
planksip has a quality threshold now. Great writings are rewarded with publication and SEO-enhanced visibility directly on the planksip front page!

A Training Ground For and Community of Writers

In addition to offering publication services to members of academia seeking more freedom in writing and publishing, planksip also offers training for new writers who wish to improve their critical thinking and writing skills. The various aspiring writers who employ our services will be brought together within the site to form a community, in which each member can freely exchange ideas and constructive criticism, in addition to receiving professional guidance from our team of PhD editors (for an additional cost).

In order to facilitate the exchange of ideas and the interaction between the members of our planksip community, planksip will provide a community forum as well as regular writing contests in which members can discuss and write about thought-provoking topics. In the spirit of planksip’s overarching goal of facilitating deep, meaningful thought even outside of the context of academia, these topics will focus on the ideas of great thinkers in the past, to whom intellectual curiosity, reflections, and writing were not strictly affixed to professions and specialities. As an incentive, cash prizes will be offered to the winners of these contests as well as the opportunity to be published on the planksip website.

Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord

Do you have the ovaries to test your ideas against real-life philosophers? Then participate in planksip’s Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord—a multi-tier debate arena where you choose the level of criticism your ideas will receive/withstand in the face of real-life philosophers who specialize in the subject of your choice.

How many flames can you stand?

Baalzebul (🔥) — Gentle criticism and nudges, meant to guide you in the right direction and help you discover ideas that you never fully realized that you had.
Mephistopheles (🔥🔥) — Friendly but firm criticism, clearly demarcating areas in need of clarification
Asmodeus (🔥🔥🔥) — Proper criticism where it's due, pointing out blind spots, raising objections.
Maxima Satanas (🔥🔥🔥🔥) — Maximal counter argumentation for people training for life on-the-air or public forum debates.
Optional: We will stream your PGMO Session live!
Optional: We will store it on the planksip YouTube channel!

JOINING THE PLANKSIP WRITER'S COOPERATIVE

The planksip writers cooperative gives members writing assignments, of which they compete for cash prizes. This article highlights the benefits of membership as well as outlines the rules and guidelines for submissions. Becoming a planksip writer is easier than you think. Becoming a better writer? Well, that is up to you.

Eusocial and Ephemeral!

What we do with this knowledge is up to us.

Theory

Our shared approach to cultural myelination is fundamentally an ethical claim and reflects the entire corpus of collected information of human knowledge, epistemology as it is; replicable and pluralistic. Multiple nodes of propagation are antithetical with a manageable amount of contradiction and so the leitmotiv of the möbius metaphor is evident throughout the planksip's identity. However ironic this may sound, the contradiction has utility, an opportunity to define further breakthroughs of knowledge individually and socially.

Like the planks on Theseus's ship, our shared identity is always changing, directional and formes the mutual agreement under social contract.