Neal Stephenson notes the value of Science Fiction in creating a Shared Vision for inventors to execute on. Researchers and engineers have found themselves concentrating on more and more narrowly focused topics as science and technology have become more complex. A large technology company or lab might employ hundreds or thousands of persons, each of whom can address only a thin slice of the overall problem. Communication among them can become a mare’s nest of email threads and Powerpoints. The fondness that many such people have for SF reflects, in part, the usefulness of an over-arching narrative that supplies them and their colleagues with a shared vision. Coordinating their efforts through a command-and-control management system is a little like trying to run a modern economy out of a Politburo. Letting them work toward an agreed-on goal is something more like a free and largely self-coordinated market of ideas. (more)

What Happened to Competence Porn? In 2009, Leverage writer John Rogers wrote in a blog post about how viewers enjoyed “watching competent people banter and plan,” something his team had come to refer to as “competence porn.” (2009-08-11-Leverage204theFairyGodparentsJobPostgame) (more)

By the era of Greek philosophy in the fifth century BCE, Metis had become the Titaness of wisdom and deep thought, but her name originally connoted "magical cunning" and was as easily equated with the trickster powers of Prometheus as with the "royal metis" of Zeus.[1] The Stoicc (Stoicism) commentators allegorized Metis as the embodiment of "prudence", "wisdom" or "wise counsel", in which form he was inherited by the Renaissance.[2] The Greek word metis meant a quality that combined wisdom and cunning. This quality was considered to be highly admirable and was regarded by Athenians as one of the notable characteristics of the Athenian character. Metis was the one who gave Zeus a potion to cause Kronos to vomit out Zeus' siblings.[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metis_(mythology) (more)

In mythology and the study of folklore and religion, a trickster is a character in a story (god, goddess, spirit, human or anthropomorphisation) who exhibits a great degree of intellect or secret knowledge and uses it to play tricks or otherwise disobey normal rules and defy conventional behavior. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trickster cf reality hacker, hacker

Venkatesh Rao has an online EBook-ish essay series out called "Breaking Smart Season1" - Tinkering, Network Culture, Software Is Eating The World, Reality Hacker, etc. (more)

term from old printed book that were "interactive" by giving you choices at the end of a section, leading you off to different next-pages based on your decision

co-founder and ex-CEO of Meow Wolf

Jedi Blue is the name of an agreement between Alphabet (Google) and Meta (Facebook) Platforms that allegedly gave Facebook an illegal advantage in Google's ad auctions in exchange for Facebook's word that it would end its own ad service plans. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jedi_Blue (more)

Why Wasn't I Consulted? - see (2011-01-07) Ford WWIC

Meow Wolf is an American arts and entertainment company that creates large-scale interactive and immersive art installations. Meow Wolf was formed in February 2008 in Santa Fe as an artist collective by "a group of young residents hoping to supply Santa Fe with an alternative art and music venue. By 2019, the museum held the works of 200 different artists and employs more than 150 people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meow_Wolf I went to the Denver site in Mar'2023. (more)

In business, B Corporation (also B Lab or B Corp) is a private certification of for-profit companies of their "social and environmental performance". It is distinct from the United States legal designation of a benefit corporation. B Corp certification is conferred by B Lab, a global nonprofit organization with offices in the United States, Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and a partnership in Latin America with Sistema B. To be granted and to maintain certification, companies must receive a minimum score of 80 from an assessment of "social and environmental performance", integrate B Corp commitments to stakeholders into company governing documents, and pay an annual fee based on annual sales.[1] Companies must re-certify every three years to retain B Corporation status. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B_Corporation_(certification)

Albert Wenger describes the B Corporation set of Game Rule-s, reminiscent of the Triple Bottom Line concept. You can already formally become a B Corporation in six states, including California as of a week ago. In New York the bill has been passed in both houses and awaits the signature of Governor Cuomo... For venture backed companies it would be ideal to have Delaware also write the B Corporation into the law. That will likely take some time as Delaware is not an innovator when it comest to corporate law (they were the 22nd state to provide LLC laws). But in the meantime, you can already act like a B Corporation if that’s of interest to you and even be certified by BLabs (the non-profit behind the B Corporation). (more)

How I do my sense-making via reading and writing. As context/inspiration of FluxGarden. (work in progress) (more)

HighLight, Annotation, Note Taking (more)

Meow Wolf putting the bite on investors who anted up when it needed help, critics say. Nick Perry was among the 621 people who answered the call in 2017 when the Santa Fe, N.M.-based art collective took to Wefunder, a crowdfunding service. The up-and-coming art collective, now an expanding enterprise, raised $1.3 million in a little under 48 hours. (more)

Can an Art Collective Become the Disney of the Experience Economy? Meow Wolf started as a loose group of penniless punks. Now it’s a multimillion-dollar dream factory anchoring an “immersive bazaar” in Las Vegas. (more)

Meow Wolf: I Can’t Believe It’s Not Better. Meow Wolf: House of Eternal Return was a fun house. A cacophonous assemblage of wild ideas loosely connected by a soft sci-fi narrative packaged for tidy consumption (more)

Why Meow Wolf Coming to Phoenix Is Worrisome. The psychedelic, Burning Man-esque vibe of the Santa Fe flagship Meow Wolf has been widely popular, seeing large attendance numbers for the small southwest mountain town. However, Meow Wolf has not been loved by all in that community. Some, myself included, have been critical of the vaguely colonial subtext that underlies its permanent installation titled the House of Eternal Return (more)

Meow Wolf CEO Vince Kadlubek Steps Down – for Now. Vince Kadlubek stepped down from his role as Meow Wolf CEO on October 18; he will be replaced by a team of the company's officers, all of whom have considerable corporate experience. (more)

The Latest Denver Artist to File Suit Against Meow Wolf Speaks Out. In August, artist/activist Zoë Williams, the director of community outreach for Meow Wolf Denver, which is slated to open in 2021, filed a claim with the State of New Mexico, charging that Meow Wolf discriminates against its female and gender non-binary employees. Now Mar Williams, a narrative illustrator for Meow Wolf (and no relation to Zoë Williams), joined what has become a full-fledged lawsuit filed in District Court in Santa Fe. (more)