...on org learning

(context: this was largely copy-pasted from an early internal Atoka document)

Guiding Principle: Counterinsurgency1

Armies that decentralize the task of intra-war learning and centralize the execution of intra-war organizational change can be observed to adapt more effectively to counterinsurgency

– James Ondaatje, "WAGING POLITICS: COMMAND AND CONTROL IN INTRA-WAR ADAPTATION TO COUNTERINSURGENCY"

  1. Decentralize Learning
  2. Centralize Execution

Monday Morning Org Sessions

Principle: The "Mythical Man-Month"

What one programmer can do in one month, two programmers can do in two months.

– Fred Brooks

  1. Collaboration is incredibly difficult to get right (see quote)
  2. Collaboration is worth getting right (see most of human progress)

Org Sessions

  1. Every Monday Morning, the team will meet for a collaborative org-mode session to deal with the most pressing challenges and uncertainties facing Atoka.
  2. The Org Leader will Moderate and "Drive" – share their screen while the canonical Org Learning document is updated with the official Questions, Proposals, and Resolutions of the Organization.
  3. Proposals and Questions may be added at any point via GitLab
  4. This meeting will be conducted in the context of "Organizational Learning" - with a continuous investigation into the effectiveness of the system of learning itself.
  5. Persons in the meeting shall be treated as ECPs to be delegated Informed Autonomy (see "Informed Autonomy")
  6. Any meetings other than the MMOS should "smell" - that is, they should be assumed inefficient unless proven otherwise.

Informed Autonomy of Extremely Capable Persons

The main goal of Org Learning. Engenders Deep Focus and Executive Function

Definitions:

  • Informed: The state of possessing correct inputs (first-principles onward) to ones own unique decision-making process. An incredibly difficult state to achieve.
  • Autonomy: Colloquially, "power" - the state of being in charge of one's own life.
  • Extremely Capable Persons (ECPs): those who excel when put in a state of Informed Autonomy
  • Deep Focus: A state of mind incompatible with interruption or risk of interruption. Usually requires an entire day of unstructured isolation to reliably induce. A prerequisite for Creativity.
  • Creativity: The ability to produce new ideas and solutions - usually good ones. Similar (but not identical) to "Experimentation."
  • Executive Function: Time spent doing. The "performance" that justifies the practice.

Beliefs:

  • The MMOS is a Success if all ECPs leave Informed to a level sufficient for their Autonomy, a Failure otherwise.
  • The end goal of the MMOS is to maximize future ECP-time spent in Deep Focus or Executive Function
  • If a solution to a problem is not immediately apparent, organizational or individual Creativity must be induced. This is difficult, but valuable.
  • Uninformed Autonomy of an ECP leads to stagnation (but not damage - know your big "unknowns," bring them to the next MMOS)
  • Misinformation and misunderstanding can lead to organizational damage
  • ECPs will produce excellent results if sufficiently Informed
  • An organization that does not consist entirely of ECPs is bloated
  • The decision making process of the organization (in appropriate situations) is allowed to be simulated in a single brain without undue/burdensome communication (e.g. daily meetings)
  • "Informed Autonomy" is a powerful weapon, best kept in the hands of ECPs
  • Mistakes produce postmortae, postmortae produce org learning. If the value of org learning that results from a postmortem process exceeds the damage caused by the Mistake, then it was an Acceptable Mistake.

Footnotes

1

A useful model for handling surprise and complexity in technical and business operations - but when it comes to real life, I find myself compelled to state that one mustn't assume improved counterinsurgency is a good thing for our species. Besides, in 'open source' technical operations, I find relevant inspiration more readily from principles of what you might call 'counter-counterinsurgency'