Exit to Protocol

SoP23 Research
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Originally published at: https://summerofprotocols.com/research/exit-to-protocol

Protocolization of an individual’s work, the weaving of individual protocols up to a team level, and the zoomed-out view of an organization as a system of protocols push at the basic premises that we have around what intellectual ownership and value capture means in knowledge work. This exploration and tool facilitates an “exit to protocol”…

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I found this essay particularly “tight” from start to finish. I liked the flow from:

  • Fleabag ending well (something that resonates with me strongly as I’ve watched too many shark jumps ruin things I care about :cry: )
  • Space10
  • fleshing out relevant details/mechanics of productivity protocols
  • back to Space10 and the “whale fall” analogy

I was a bit unclear on how to avoid the incentives of the “knowledge monopolization” that create stagnation and bullshit job. Didn’t things like agile arise to be more flexible and less rigid? Is it just the natural fate of any protocol underneath bureaucracy, which is itself a natural development within any company that begins to protect & expand what it already has more so than create new things? Why did Space10 play out the way it did? Why would any company stop while it’s ahead when most/all incentives want it to continue or at least cash out. All countervailing incentives of principles strong enough? Putting things in dumb storage is a non-zero chance at future selfish wealth but giving it away is a 0% chance :thinking:

I liked the descriptions of bullshit jobs and the idea of potential “artisan” human work as AI develops.

Thank you Shuya!

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