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Back to Can You Engineer Serendipity?, with Evan Baehr & Chris Taylor.

Why Did a Member Mop the House Floors Unasked?

Zac Solomon is the only employee, and the members already got the picture. The best example that the culture is actually working is a member mopping the floors without being asked.

Applicants have to read writing on the vision, the mission, and what the space should be, plus stories of members. Zac Solomon then asks whether they are still okay with it. They say yes, and they join. A cleaning lady now comes twice a month. The other week, a member took a picture of another member mopping the floors. Zac Solomon says she did it just because she wanted to, or thought the floors needed mopping, or whatever it was. He never asked her. She brought her own mop and did her own thing, and she was not going to mention the mopping if another member had not photographed it. A text sometimes asks for a bread knife. He says sure, orders it on Amazon, and it is there the next day so members can cut their bread.

Zac Solomon calls the mopping a microcosm of the other things happening in the house. The role left is container organizer. Everybody else fills the space.

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Transcript

Can You Engineer Serendipity? ·

Austin Next

More from this episode

  1. What Is Rosedale?Rosedale is a physical room Zac Solomon runs for serious, non-dogmatic argument. The project started very niche.
  2. Why Do University of Texas Grads Work in the Bay?Evan Baehr says top CS students at UT and the Austin companies that want engineers keep missing each other.
  3. What Is Serendipity Manufacturing?Chris Taylor says serendipity manufacturing is mostly the room.
  4. Why Did Less Writing Make a Writing Club Happier?Zac Solomon says a writing club is really about talking to other people. People use the writing as the excuse for showing up.
  5. Why Is Fridge Starting to Charge Event Hosts?Chris Taylor says a big benefit of being a Fridge member is throwing events in the space for free once the group is above 10.
  6. Why Do Big Spenders Love the Free Golden Ticket?Evan Baehr runs a for-profit membership with a very high price and a free version called the golden ticket for extraordinary people under 25.
  7. Why Does a Small Austin Club Survive Losing Half?Zac Solomon calls a small rented room probably the most sustainable way to run a community in Austin. He is a little younger and takes very minimal risk.
  8. Are Sweet Greens the Way of Texas?Evan Baehr says an experience of Texas made of Sweet Greens and La La Land is not the way of Texas.

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