Finding Your Dao

As we discuss in the book, linear book narratives have a significant disadvantage of forcing every reader down a single learning path. While the online version avoids this through the extensive use of hyperlinks, those who hold a physical copy will find this more challenging to navigate. To partially alleviate this problem, we have structured the text in a "circular" manner, where readers can start at a variety of points, read from there and circle back to the "earlier" material at the end.

We recommend in particular that:

Those with a primarily topical, political or current affairs interest begin at the beginning of the book, with the preface and read straight through.
Those with a more conceptual, theoretical or broadly intellectual interest consider skipping Parts 1 and 2 and beginning in Part 3.
Those with a more technical, technological or engineering focus consider beginning with Part 4.
Those with an interest in concrete technologies and their applications consider beginning with Part 5.
Those with an interest in real-world impact in specific social sectors consider beginning with Part 6.
Those with a focus on public policy, government and social mobilization consider beginning with Part 7.

Regardless of starting point, we expect most readers who find value wherever they begin will find it worthwhile to continue reading, looping back and filling in the theoretical frameworks of "later" parts of the book with the material that comes earlier.

This book is a living document. If you are reading a printed version, it is almost certainly out of date already and you can read or download for free the latest version at https://www.plurality.net/.

More importantly, we hope you will view yourselves not just as readers but as collaborators on this project. You may at any time submit a concern or problem with the text (as an "issue") for the community to prioritize or a revision (as a "pull request") for consideration by the community at https://github.com/pluralitybook/plurality. All contributions are credited and earn the contributor recognition and governance rights as we describe below.

If we made a mistake, take it as an invitation. If you feel we are wrong, set us straight. If we are not speaking in the language of your community, create a version that does. If you don't want to deal with the community, the material has no copyright so take anything you want and leave the rest. Ask not "why is nobody doing this?" You are the nobody.