Welcome to the newly refreshed Big Calm website! If you’ve ever gone through a website redesign, you know it’s about a lot more than just picking new colours and updating photos. It forces you to sit down and really think about how you talk about what you’re doing. For us, putting words to the vision […]
You’ve perhaps heard of Dunbar’s Number: 150. Put forward by anthropologist Robin Dunbar, humans can only maintain stable social relationships with around 150 people; a cognitive limit based on the size of the neocortex. While 150 is the most famous figure suggested by Dunbar, there were others. Best viewed as nested concentric circles of 5 […]
“Community is probably the best investment you can make.” ~ Charles Eisenstein When we hear the word “investing,” most of us think about financial wealth—savings accounts, stock portfolios, or retirement funds. While financial capital is undeniably important, it is far from the only form of wealth that ensures resilience and fulfillment in life. True resilience—what […]
“The gift moves in a circle, and it returns transformed.” ~ Charles Eisenstein Our economic system is based on the pursuit of endless growth, often at the expense of social and ecological health. But it hasn’t always been this way. In traditional societies, gift economies were foundational. Food, labour, and resources were shared within communities, […]
Originally presented by Steve Hardy on January 18, 2025 at the Virtual Tiny Home Show. This presentation was in part inspired by The Herd of Cats 10 years earlier.
Big Calm cofounder Steve Hardy once ran a disaster and emergency management tech startup and would regularly speak at events about black swans, uncertainty, emergence, applied improv, resilience, and antifragility – all subjects that are even more pertinent today and that crossover to permaculture and tiny homesteading. So, rummaging through the archives, here is a […]
In computing, a tech stack is a collection of independent components that work together to support the execution of software. For example, to develop a web application, the architect defines the stack as the target operating system, web server, database, programming language, and so on. In permaculture, the practice of stacking functions ensures that every element […]
The term self-reliance brings to mind a lone homesteader living off-grid in a home built with reclaimed materials. They harvest their rainwater; capture and store energy with a solar panel and a battery; and grow and preserve their own food. They may have a wood stove to cook and heat their home with, and have […]
Join Natalie Brake of Tiny House Listings Canada for a “deep dive” conversation with Big Calm cofounder Steve Hardy. Wide-ranging topics include nature, permaculture, edge space, zones, supply chains, prefab tiny houses, pocket neighbourhoods, Dunbars numbers, resilience, birding, community, and more!
This infinity loop is called the Adaptive Cycle. It was first developed to explain the life cycle of forests, and is the most powerfully simple way to describe resilience. More than just bouncing back from adversity, resilience is a loop – constant and in multitudes. Once you see it this way you’ll see it everywhere […]
