The Super Linear Acceleration of Organizations

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In a small startup, let's say there's only two people working on it, all the information is already in their heads about what they need to do. In a large organization, maybe 10 or 15 or even more people have to coordinate in order to get the task done. The amount of effort it takes, the overhead it takes to coordinate can become a huge portion of the underlying effort.

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Why do organizations get slower as they grow? What can organizations learn from slime molds? What are the advantages of top-down organization versus bottom-up organization, and vice versa? How can organizations encourage serendipity? What use are doorbells in jungles? Why is it so hard for organizations to set a "north star" that is at once plausible, coherent, and good?

Alex Komoroske has over a decade of experience in the tech industry as a product manager focusing on platform- and ecosystem-shaped problems. While at Google, he worked on Chrome's Web Platform PM team, Augmented Reality in Google Maps, and Ambient Computing. He's fascinated by how to navigate the emergent complexity within organizations to achieve great results. You can find some of his public writing at komoroske.com.

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