User:Ciell/The Wikimedian in the hammock

Back in 2011, through social media (when X was still Twitter), someone shared with me a blog post with the concept of 'being the huntsman in the hammock' and twelve years later this still resonates with me. In the context of Movement Strategy and the conversations about fundraising and fund distribution the MCDC is having, and the choices that have to be made concerning these items, let me share it with you.

The principle of the huntsman in the hammock originates in strategic laziness. It's about being able to recline and rest, bow and arrow within reach, and your senses on edge yet relaxed. When at one point something appears from the forest, you can rise, dock, aim and shoot and it usually hits. A lazy hunter saves his energy to be able to do the right thing at the right time. His choice to recline into the hammock means he does not run into the forest and shoots at everything he sees: he makes strategic choices on where to spend his energy and time so he can focus when he will benefit the most from his effort.

Wikimedians in our movement make the same decisions on a regular, if not weekly or even daily basis. Am I going to work on an article, or engage in on-wiki discussions? Am I going to join a videocall, or read the summary of the call afterwards? Am I going to record a video tutorial, or travel 4 hours to attend the workshop in person? Am I going to go outside and take pictures, or work through a maintenance backlog on one of the projects? The outcomes of these questions is a weighing of interest, energy and (expected) impact. With which decision do I feel most comfortable, what makes the time and energy invested worth it - being on a personal, a community or even a global level?

When it comes to the spending of money, the issue is no different. As with personal energy, there is a limit to how much income our movement has, and we can only use it once. Where to spend it on is like making the choice between ordering a pizza every week, or upgrading the kitchen and maybe even renovating the whole house. Should we build a new tool to make things easier, or update an old project back-end? Do we want to hire five additional translators for a project next year, or should we invest our income to make our projects survive the next decade?

I think that in a movement as global as ours, we can leave a lot of decisions to the local communities, as long as together -as that global movement- we make sure that our house is standing and the roof doesn't leak, we have water and electricity and fire, our volunteers can take care of that pizza themselves. One will use the electric oven in the kitchen to make one, another will use the fireplace in the living room to make themselves a hot-stone pizza. Maybe a third one will make a pan fried one over the open fire in the garden because they want to watch the stars while doing so: all is possible as long as we have the house. And we will be able to afford the house as long as we don't all order in our pizza every week.

My personal Wikimedian in the Hammock likes to do the 'big impact' things, as long as she also has time to do some doodling or a crossword puzzle while reclining. She needs time to re-energize and process before getting to the next big thing. Our movement also needs to be as the Wikimedian in the Hammock: the resources are not unlimited, and sometimes we need to lean back and create a moment to refocus on those efforts where our energy and money is spend in the most effective and future-proof way imaginable.