# Good Communities Provide, Great Communities Exclude

> What I've Been Thinking About Lately #94

**Published by:** [WIBTAL](https://wibtal.com/)
**Published on:** 2026-06-20
**URL:** https://wibtal.com/94

## Content

Yuval Harari says that if you fight a chimp it'll eat your face off. But if 100v100 and the humans can coordinate a way to win. He uses this as an example to show that working in large numbers is what separates humans from the rest of the animal kingdom So we humans make groups like families, neighborhoods, and companies because our collective is stronger than the individual parts. Naturally, we want to be a part of the best groups we can because the better our group, the more that is afforded to us. My friend Ben once said to me that the best communities are the ones where everybody feels in debt to each other, but no one is keeping score. Communities like this lend each other money at no interest, host each other for free meals, and step up to provide when someone needs help. Everyone wants to belong to these great communities, but it seems like there aren't many of them, so what makes them great and how do you create them? The best communities are not those that can provide, but those that can exclude. Harvard doesn't teach better physics than a community college, it sells a filter. They exclude who they find to be the dumb and poor so that when you say "I went to Harvard" people can infer a level of competency and/or wealth. If Harvard let anyone in, even if the quality of education stayed the same, the value of the degree would plummet. All real groups have a process for keeping out undesirables, colleges call it admissions, countries call it borders, sports teams call it cuts. Whatever the name, successful groups understand that membership cannot be unlimited because the unqualified can asymmetrically tank the value of the community. Imagine a basketball team that allowed one random person onto the roster. The team’s average talent would decline, but more importantly, the players who earned their spot would place less value on being part of the team. As Steve Jobs famously observed, "A" players want to work with "A" players. Once a group lowers its standards, its best members begin to leave, and the quality of the group deteriorates. So you need an enforced opinionated standard. I use the word enforced because those with the least to offer often have the most to gain from being affiliated with a high-status group. The weakest graduate from medical school is still a doctor and benefits from the reputation of the profession. This creates a constant incentive for people to join groups whose standards they have not earned. Without enforcement, the quality of the group falls toward the quality of its least qualified members. I use the word opinionated because if you try to accommodate everyone, you stand for nothing. My ideal workout community is one where everyone wakes up early, pushes hard, and talks trash. Planet Fitness takes the opposite approach, installing a “lunk alarm” that goes off if you make a noise that could be seen as intimidating. Neither approach is objectively correct, but both create a clear culture that attracts people who want the same thing. If a gym tries to appeal equally to both ends of the intensity spectrum, it ends up appealing to neither. I think most friendships are unintentional, formed through circumstance, proximity, or obligation. Great communities are different. They are built on mutual admiration and a willingness to give more than you take. They are difficult to create, but, as I have learned living away from home for the past five months, life is nothing without great people to experience it with. Building community is the highest-return investment a person can make.

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