The Tentacle Economy

You're right, and it's a real gap in the essay. I wrote it around the arms a person can grow on their own, work, investments, a business, and skipped the thing that makes growing any of them easier: other people. It's also the tentacle that costs the least to start. Since I began building my current project I've been living your point without having named it: the most useful things that have happened came through communities I joined recently and just tried to be useful in. "Join, participate and help others" is a better safety net line than anything I wrote. Thanks for adding it.