The World's First Publicly Traded Person
I sell shares in myself at KmikeyM.com. Shareholders vote on my life decisions. It started in 2008 and I'm still at it.
Most recently I'm the executive producer of Blippo+ and Head of Content at Vibes DIY.
You can't have a market with only one person. Capitalism, for all its many flaws, is about people. I've applied the impersonal and detached model of the corporation to my personal life, and surprisingly, it has paid dividends in the form of friends.
When I face a hard choice I turn to my shareholders. I give them explicit control. It sounds extraordinary (maybe even dystopian), but we all turn to people for advice. Having shares allows people to literally invest in me, but we all have "shareholders."
No one likes to think they are "controlled" but especially in the age of the algorithm we ignore how much we are being manipulated. By intentionally giving up control to others we are actually demonstrating how in control we are.
Also: XOXO Festival, Ethereal Summit, Portland State University, CyborgCamp, Webvisions, Ten Conf, Pecha Kucha, and more.
You can get the whole story in song, but here are the highlights:
I haven't been to college (yet) but I consider the ten years I had at Panic a sort of apprenticeship. And I love to read, so that is kind of like school, right?
Previously I worked with creators to build online communities, worked at the ad agency Sandwich, co-founded Chroma (later acquired), went through the Barclays Fintech Accelerator and the Nike+ Accelerator. I've designed games, written VR scenarios, hosted web-reality shows, produced podcasts, and served in the US Army.
For business opportunities, investor relations, speaking engagements, and more.
Mailing Address:
ATTN: KmikeyM
PO Box 425
South Pasadena, CA 91031
"The primary capital to be safeguarded and valued is man, the human person in his or her integrity."
— Pope Benedict XVI
KmikeyM.com is a personal decision making engine modeled after a stock market. By measuring influence as the number of shares a person has we've created a way to quantify opinion.
Of course it's not a real share like you might buy on the NYSE or NASDAQ. There is no company behind KmikeyM and so the "ownership" you hold is actually just a metaphor for trust.
To be frank, no. We're not a bank, and we're not a company. It would not be wise to consider this an "investment". It's an experimental decision engine. You should consider KmikeyM "high risk" and only buy shares if you feel you can afford to lose the money.
"None of this is real. All of this is an illusion and your acceptance of that fact is the beginning of the pathway to self-knowledge."
— Frederick Lenz