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.
Conversation
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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Modern startup ecosystems and open-source communities before large-scale financialization are of course the most familiar example of BCIMINs, but it’s a more general phenomenon. See for example steam engines after James Watt’s patents expired: jstor.org/stable/2360356
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Robert Allen called BCIMINs “collective invention settings” (his concept is the basis for the paper above). A more contemporary model is settler phase of Cringley’s pioneer-settler-town planner model which incorporated into his mapping model. blog.gardeviance.org/2015/03/on-pio
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Replying to
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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Personally, I'm not yet convinced that you can describe companies themselves in this form but within companies you can describe different attitudes necessary -
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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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In sectors with an acquisition culture, it seems to be a relay race as startups sell to holding companies (eg pharma) and team disbands and circles back to try again. Settler/bowling alley is the transition/hand-off zone. No companies specialize there, but VCs etc. facilitate.
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Replying to
I like (we spoke / had dinner / talked maps in Oz together) and I do find the chasm a wonderful addition to Rogers diffusion curves. But evolution is not the same as diffusion and this matters from anticipation to organisation e.g.
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X : Why do you need a system of theft with pioneers, settlers and town planners (PST)?
Me : Gosh, complex. Ok, let us start with PST overlaid (A) onto a map and I'll just add a line for the evolution of computing infrastructure from genesis to utility.
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I have nothing to add to this thread apart from thank you for raising trevithick on Twitter. One of my favourite third-glass rants to silly valley types...
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