General Thinking is a global network of thinkers & doers: creative, wise & engaged; thoughtful people doing good work.
The purpose of General Thinking is mostly to BE ... a connection platform and source of support, inspiration and opportunity for its growing network of General Thinkers. The focus of the network is connection, collaboration, serendipity ... and fun.
Finally, General Thinking is a private curated network. To become a General Thinker one needs to be invited by an existing General Thinker or to have a requested application to join approved.
All General Thinkers are committed to using their best endeavours to:
Check out this making-of video ... and feel the love.
General Thinkers give us their presence and a certain level of engagement. In return they get: exclusive and private access to one another (for wisdom, inspiration & opportunity); a clubby sense of pride; and the co-traveller's sense of wellbeing that derives from belonging to something unique and special.
We rely on the financial contributions of our supporting members i.e. those of you who choose to help out with a small annual payment HERE. Please.
Rather than tie your level of support with available features, we felt that it was more in the spirit of General Thinking to seek your support on a voluntary basis. Having said that, we have developed some very appealing schwag (e.g. numbered keyring and lapel pin as shown), and we will ship that welcome pack to you in accord with your chosen level of support. You will also be recognised on our your profile as a General Thinking Supporter at the relevant level. Thank You!
General Thinking uses colour to identify various functional categories of transdisciplinary focus. Our subject categories, positioned in the round, represent a diversity of thinkers & doers side by side, focused on issues and challenges, in creative collaboration with one another ... resulting in ideas and solutions.
General Thinking was founded in New York in 2001 by Remo Giuffré, in collaboration with developer Geoffrey Gifford. The beta version, something of a social networking experiment, was an online manifestation of Remo's personal network of creative collaborators; which then developed, via a then-unique process of nomination and endorsement, to include a diverse collection of individuals from all over the world; people thinking clear thoughts, and doing good work: designers, writers, architects, artists, entrepreneurs, directors, journalists, chefs, scientists and musicians ... an online "guild", a band of brothers & sisters.
Browse earlier versions of GeneralThinking.com using the Wayback Machine HERE.
V1 worked a treat, but in those days (pre-LinkedIn, pre-facebook, pre-Friendster even) we had less of an idea of what to DO with it ... and how to make it sustainable.
Fast forward a decade. Back in his native Sydney, Remo began working on some special projects for TED (including TEDxSydney for which he is founder & licensee) that called for the application of a broad range of skills and wisdom. So, he decided that it was time to reform the GT band, this time with help from web developer Adam Dennis. The idea is to recapture the essence of General Thinking, to rebuild the global network, but this time with plans to DO, rather than just BE. Then, in 2018, a decision was made to shift the network to Hivebrite, a richly functional third party online platform. This time around Remo and his collaborators have a much clearer idea of the potential, and a powerful collective hunch that the time is now right for General Thinking ... in part as a curated alternative to other online professional networks, and category-specific/siloed creative networks.