It doesn't have to be that way. There are certain common patterns in communities who stay healthy without losing their ideals. Does the Chaos Computer Club (CC

It doesn't have to be that way. There are certain common patterns in communities who stay healthy without losing their ideals. Does the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) in Germany count as intentional community? This community is ever growing, and I'd say they changed generations at least twice: the oldest members (1st generation) retired long ago, some meanwhile died. And the now-elders (2nd generation) are making place for younger peers (3rd generation). To put this picture more into perspective: There are now-middle-age members (age ~40-50) who joined the CCC in their yough, but still know the community's beginning only from the tellings of older members. And yet there is a strong sharing of ideals and values. Due to their early history (helping and protecting members who got in trouble with KGB) they are still politically active, strong proponents of data protection and privacy, as well as opposed to large data collectors, intelligence agencies, military and the industries around those. They hold these ideals even though hacker communities in many other countries (US, etc.) developed into a totally [1] different direction. Their annual Chaos Communication Congress is breaking records year by year, in terms of attendees but also in terms of quality and volunteer engagement. And this is just the CCC. I know some other communites here in Germany which are similarily structured and healthy. But these are less known internationally, so I decided to cite those the CCC as my example. The "trick" of all these communities is that each task is performed by a team - even though sometimes a single person would be sufficient. So there is a decoupling of the task from the single individuals performing them. This means each team can grow, renew and rejuvenate gradually, at its own pace. [2][3] [1] pun intended [2] Thinking a that, a similar strategy is also what keeps large code bases healthy. [3] Thinking even more of that, democracy as a whole works that way, which is why it's easier for democracies to rejuvenate than for most dictatorships, most of which fail utterly after one or two generations - to be replaced with a totally different dictatorship, or hopefully with something that is better for the poeple and more sustainable.