Ikigai Collective
AI-powered life design through experimentation
The Ikigai Collective is a platform for people who want to leverage AI tools to iteratively discover and pursue their ikigai — the intersection of what you're good at, what you love, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for.
We operate like an artist studio. Members share techniques, inspire each other, and run experiments — but nobody assigns tasks. There is no hierarchy, participation is voluntary, and every member defines their own path.
Values
Three first-principle values, distilled by the members over weeks of discussion and adopted in July 2026. Everything else the Collective does derives from them.
- Curiosity. It generates questions and a desire for understanding — the mechanism through which we find the ideas worth building on.
- Agency. The ability and the desire to maintain, build, and strengthen the ability to act. With more knowledge we increase our degrees of freedom.
- Compassion. Iteration guarantees failures, and they are not shameful. It is through compassion that we support each other, give honest feedback, and stay human.
Why Now
Technology has reduced the distance from idea to action to zero. What once required years of specialized knowledge can now be prototyped in hours with agentic AI platforms. The entire SaaS industry was predicated on maintaining that distance. That era is ending.
At the same time, millions of people are caught in systems that don't serve them. AI doesn't just automate tasks — it can be a platform for life design.
The Experiment Model
Principles
- Everything is code. Marketing, sales, product management. AI has made this undeniable. The tools extend to every domain.
- Flat by design. No hierarchy, no assigned tasks. Come with your own ideas, experiments, and initiative.
- Open by default. Projects, profiles, and lab notes live publicly. Sharing is part of the value.
- Skepticism is healthy. AI is powerful and exploitable. Human connection is the check. The wetware is still necessary.
- Degrees of freedom. Increase cognitive, physical, and economic freedom — while being true to your values.
Lab Notes
Our open lab notebook: weekly notes from every Lab Night since the first — what we tried, what we learned, and how the Collective's thinking evolved. Read the Lab Notes.
Join
The Collective is open. Join the Discord server, introduce yourself in #introductions, and come to the next Lab Night — every Thursday at 21:00 Rome time (CEST). Bring a project, or just your curiosity.