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But credentials are not necessary for a BCIMIN. Only the impedance mismatch between the depth of knowledge and experience being brought to bear on the work, and the seemingly “beneath them” level of hands-on-work and mucking about at the tool level.
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I’ve seen credentialed, decorated types literally turn up their noses with “this is contractor/intern/newbie grunt work”. When a respected, high-reputation person says something like that, I immediately flip the bozobit and look skeptically at their supposed great reputation.
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Invariably I find they’ve been doing shallow, dull work aimed at racking up institutional merit points (number of papers/patents, awards etc). They are the Paris Hiltons of innovation. Famous for being famous. A resume stuffed with everything except blue-collar innovation.
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Blue-collar innovators are “new medium pilot plant” producers. Their workspaces/tooling are inbetween basic research labs and scaled production. They produce in small batches not because they have artisan sensibilities but because they’re pushing the scaling limits of new media.
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BCIMINs are the most stimulating and energizing place for most smart, creative, imaginative, and growth-oriented people to participate in. It’s not the rare lightning-strike regime that creates pioneers, nor is it the predictable world of institutions built around stable tools.
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I’d guess 1% of the population will end up as pioneers, 9% as blue-collar innovators, and 90% as mature-institution normies. Of that 90%, a third to half (so 30-45% of total) will be bullshit workers, predators and parasites at maturity. Free riders of one sort or the other.
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This is fine. I approve of non-producing free riders right up to the point that kills the host process of wealth creation. It’s only good wealth if it produces a surplus, and somebody has to consume it. Somebody has to eat all that cake.
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Cringley’s (pseudonym) model was a 1/2 page comment on three different types of companies - commandos / infantry / police ... that is quite a long way from the pioneer - settler - town planner model of organising a company that i used. Though a debt is acknowledged.
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Yeah I haven't read Cringley, I was just directly referencing your acknowledgement as the starting point :) Did you come up with the specific 3 terms? If so, I'll change how I reference it
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Original term for describing companies was commando, infantry and police from Accidental Empires (1993 ?). I like to acknowledge that work even though I'm not convinced that it works as a description of companies (yet) - twitter.com/swardley/statu ...
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X : Is my company more of a pioneer, settler or town planner? Me : Hmmm. Tricky. I have mixed feelings on this. Let me explain why. I'm going to start with an old map of Fotango ...
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... the original work (AFAIK) for implementing this three party pioneer - settler - town planner type structure within a single company was and myself. I've tidied some of the bits up over the last 14 years e.g. replaced the early term "coloniser" with "settler".
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