Serendipity, 10K Hours + Laddership Pod

[TLDR: this weekend, we start a 21-day, me-we-us Laddership Pod that you may like to explore. More here: Dancing with Emergence]

I've recently been thinking about how serendipity might become an endangered resource.

These days each one of us has a "data double" -- and the more we identify with our digital doppelganger, the more distant we get from our human self. By most market equations, this isn't much of a loss because our data carries more value than our presence. And Donna Haraway's quip, from 30 years ago, feels apt: "Our machines are disturbingly lively, and we ourselves are frighteningly inert." Today, bots are being programmed to behave like humans, but what's more revealing is that humans are being programmed to behave like bots. It's hard to blame the Gen Z kids that tell us that "normal" lives feel like a low-res, boring version of a video game. The lure of technology is that it can analyze big data very quickly and manufacture "contextual" accidents through its discovery algorithms; the only catch is that Big Tech optimizes for profit, and Nature optimizes for values.

For the first time in human history, we have the computing muscle to decouple our data and presence. Our physical health, emotion, thought, and even creativity are now seen as data that is better managed by machines. Rightfully so. But what of a presence beyond our senses and thought? Perhaps that presence is the key that unlocks the emergence of Nature -- which initially whispers to us through songs of serendipity. 

The untold story of Gandhi 3.0 is serendipity. On the streets of Vienna, past midnight in late October, Matthias and I were sharing a falafel when I invited him to India -- and he spontaneously decided to cancel all his January events to join. Practically every invite can be tracked down to such unexpected moments. Even the agenda during the retreat got shaped at the end of each day; volunteers had no idea, for instance, that Ai would do calligraphy and Reinaldo and Ishtar would support with the music. Stephanie, Martin, Trupti and Moriz had no choice but to improv. Sister Marilyn joked that she got a 10-minute notice before her talk, but the behind-the-scenes joke is that I had a 13-minute notice to inform her! Who knew that we were going to hum in our closing circle, or that Michael will lead us into Lean on Me? Beyond the retreat, even the outcomes were entirely unknowable and unpredictable. 

Yet. It all feels so synchronous.

All this is not for a lack of effort or expertise, but rather for an abundance of trust in emergence. Stay open till the very last minute. "In the beginner's mind, infinite possibilities," Zen Master Suzuki Roshi might say. Not so you can learn and become an expert later, but so you can optimize for uncertainty -- and the discovery algorithm of nature.

Volunteers conservatively estimated that G3 took 10 thousand hours of their time -- but it wasn't to arrive at a pre-destined outcome. AI could do all that much faster. :) No, it was to step out of the mechanistic programming, awaken our presence, cultivate a field of giver relationships that are organically supported by nature, and trust in the subtlety of serendipity to weave its strands into coherence.

How do we design for such emergence? There are many glossy "go with the flow" answers, but how do we separate signal from noise in the face of many different flows? When do we drive and when do we move to the passenger seat? What gives us the resilience to stay the course from divergence to convergence? And unlike that infamous "10 thousand hours of practice" maxim, emergence isn't an individual pursuit -- it's a team sport. It takes a village of noble friends, which further opens up a series of new edges. Traversing through all that nuance and committing to an inner transformation that grace demands of its instruments, we hope to discover simplicity on the other side of complexity. :)

Post our retreat, many of us had conversations about bringing Gandhi 3.0 design principles in different settings.  If that's an inquiry you're still holding, you might enjoy the upcoming Laddership Pod -- some context on it, and the application form. It starts this Sunday, and with couple hundred folks registered from 26 countries, it's looking to be a solid peer-learning space. It takes a time commitment of 10-20 hours/week, but if the past is any precedent, it ends up being ... well, who knows. :)

Long live serendipity. :)