Zoe, this is one of your best articles! A prompt for the "HI" human intelligence sitting on every pair of shoulders! I sense a spiritual current in this!
Really great piece. The scenius framing is sharp and the mycelium metaphor genuinely stuck with me. The isolation point landed hard.
My only addition is that I wonder if this is a moment in time rather than a permanent new path. The same anxiety surfaced when the printing press atomized knowledge and when remote work first dissolved the office. The conditions always look broken right before they reorganize around something new.
Ridley touches on this in How Innovation Works and Isaacson makes a similar case in The Innovators. Every major breakthrough happened through networked conditions that looked accidental but weren't, and those networks reformed after every disruption.
What gives me some optimism is that to a certain extent the mycelium layer is already forming. Open source, Reddit, LinkedIn are providing a foundational collision layer right now. People sharing half formed thinking publicly, building on each other's work in the open. Whether that is brave or naive is genuinely too early to call, but it feels closer to what you are describing than it might seem.
I think AI is mid disruption. The me and my model loop feels like the early default, not the endpoint. The layer you are describing will get built, just probably not by the people currently winning on personal productivity subscriptions.
It does make me wonder whether the algorithm is already doing some of this “mycelium” work by connecting us with people, communities and ideas that we share interests with. Our devices listen when we speak, read what we type, and the algorithm then sources the content and environment, our feed, that allows us to indulge in whatever we want, whilst also connecting our half formed thoughts and curating a space where we can edit or build on our presumptions.
Loved this. You note Stephen Johnson - his book 'Where Good Ideas Come From' touches on this (scenius, without using that word). Also a new book - 'Peak Human' (Johan Norberg) is worth reading as it tracks Golden Ages and their importance.
This only discusses the difference between adding friction and iteration or optimizing for efficiency though. No mycelium. I think the reduced in person interactions after moving from downtown Stockholm (with cheap travel to all of Europe) to rural Utah is why I’m confused about how I work best now.
Love this, Zoe, applying the mycelium mushroomprint to the next AI gen, so we don't lose our humanity and creativity. Again, staying closer to nature will save us!
Zoe, why not get a group together and try to build this? Like you said, the tools are there. I think the challenge is more than surveillance concern and more about sharing especially when it comes to enterprise settings.
That being said, a clean room idea where no secrets are shared but connections are made could be a way to approach this. Clean rooms for data sharing among companies have been very successful. Similar concept for idea/AI/project sharing could work here.
Zoe, this is one of your best articles! A prompt for the "HI" human intelligence sitting on every pair of shoulders! I sense a spiritual current in this!
Really great piece. The scenius framing is sharp and the mycelium metaphor genuinely stuck with me. The isolation point landed hard.
My only addition is that I wonder if this is a moment in time rather than a permanent new path. The same anxiety surfaced when the printing press atomized knowledge and when remote work first dissolved the office. The conditions always look broken right before they reorganize around something new.
Ridley touches on this in How Innovation Works and Isaacson makes a similar case in The Innovators. Every major breakthrough happened through networked conditions that looked accidental but weren't, and those networks reformed after every disruption.
What gives me some optimism is that to a certain extent the mycelium layer is already forming. Open source, Reddit, LinkedIn are providing a foundational collision layer right now. People sharing half formed thinking publicly, building on each other's work in the open. Whether that is brave or naive is genuinely too early to call, but it feels closer to what you are describing than it might seem.
I think AI is mid disruption. The me and my model loop feels like the early default, not the endpoint. The layer you are describing will get built, just probably not by the people currently winning on personal productivity subscriptions.
Very interesting piece.
It does make me wonder whether the algorithm is already doing some of this “mycelium” work by connecting us with people, communities and ideas that we share interests with. Our devices listen when we speak, read what we type, and the algorithm then sources the content and environment, our feed, that allows us to indulge in whatever we want, whilst also connecting our half formed thoughts and curating a space where we can edit or build on our presumptions.
This makes me think of conflicts that have transformative energy and can be positive as long as they are not violent.
Loved this. You note Stephen Johnson - his book 'Where Good Ideas Come From' touches on this (scenius, without using that word). Also a new book - 'Peak Human' (Johan Norberg) is worth reading as it tracks Golden Ages and their importance.
I recognize myself in your way of working. You might enjoy this post I read on the early adopters and their way of using Claude (compared to what will be rewarded in KPIs) https://hybridhorizons.substack.com/p/the-divide-that-doesnt-show-up-in?r=7q9ag9&utm_medium=ios
This only discusses the difference between adding friction and iteration or optimizing for efficiency though. No mycelium. I think the reduced in person interactions after moving from downtown Stockholm (with cheap travel to all of Europe) to rural Utah is why I’m confused about how I work best now.
Made me think
Excellent, excellent, excellent. Will be referencing you in my panel to AI entrepreneurs on Friday - expect some new Beijing based subscribers!
Love this, Zoe, applying the mycelium mushroomprint to the next AI gen, so we don't lose our humanity and creativity. Again, staying closer to nature will save us!
Food for thought re collision density and how it contributes to creativity.
Zoe, why not get a group together and try to build this? Like you said, the tools are there. I think the challenge is more than surveillance concern and more about sharing especially when it comes to enterprise settings.
That being said, a clean room idea where no secrets are shared but connections are made could be a way to approach this. Clean rooms for data sharing among companies have been very successful. Similar concept for idea/AI/project sharing could work here.
Loved it. Collision Density, Engineered Serendipity, Archive Live. ❤️