It would be interesting to investigate the alternative ways of doing things, not only as possible solutions to the maze problem, but also for understanding where those alternative solutions do not work well and therefore, what the actual benefit from the maze-style organizations may be.
1. Open source movement. Here we have tried to not create the mazes in the first place. The work was done in bottom-up manner, the programmer was at charge. The biggest problem in this model is financing. Basically, it’s a trade of: You trade not having mazes for not having money. Also, when project grows big, there’s some need for management (a.k.a. herding cats). Here we’ve seen the BDFL model, Debian model etc. The best resource on open-source movement that I am aware of it this one: https://www.fordfoundation.org/media/2976/roads-and-bridges-the-unseen-labor-behind-our-digital-infrastructure.pdf
2. Non-governmental model. The idea here is to work in parallel, even to cooperate with a mazed organization (say a part of government) while staying simple and non-mazed yourself. Example: https://www.worksinprogress.co/issue/the-story-of-vaccinateca/ Another example: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/5b6YcFbEBCZbX6YSK/jean-monnet-the-guerilla-bureaucrat I not sure what the biggest problem is here, may as well be financing, same as in pt.1. Actually, I think we need more case studies to understand how this works better. I am trying to cook something in this direction myself. If you’ve done something interesting in this “parallel” modus operandi, do contact me, I may be willing to fund a case study.
It would be interesting to investigate the alternative ways of doing things, not only as possible solutions to the maze problem, but also for understanding where those alternative solutions do not work well and therefore, what the actual benefit from the maze-style organizations may be.
1. Open source movement. Here we have tried to not create the mazes in the first place. The work was done in bottom-up manner, the programmer was at charge. The biggest problem in this model is financing. Basically, it’s a trade of: You trade not having mazes for not having money. Also, when project grows big, there’s some need for management (a.k.a. herding cats). Here we’ve seen the BDFL model, Debian model etc. The best resource on open-source movement that I am aware of it this one: https://www.fordfoundation.org/media/2976/roads-and-bridges-the-unseen-labor-behind-our-digital-infrastructure.pdf
2. Non-governmental model. The idea here is to work in parallel, even to cooperate with a mazed organization (say a part of government) while staying simple and non-mazed yourself. Example: https://www.worksinprogress.co/issue/the-story-of-vaccinateca/ Another example: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/5b6YcFbEBCZbX6YSK/jean-monnet-the-guerilla-bureaucrat I not sure what the biggest problem is here, may as well be financing, same as in pt.1. Actually, I think we need more case studies to understand how this works better. I am trying to cook something in this direction myself. If you’ve done something interesting in this “parallel” modus operandi, do contact me, I may be willing to fund a case study.