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Swarms are messy.

By Justin Long ⋅ December 29, 2009 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

Swarms cannot be controlled: only guided. They do not always grow into precisely the shape you had in mind. Sometimes they must be pruned, and the pruning is painful.

Swarms are not very well known. Trying to understand who is “in” and who is “out” is a challenge when there are many different levels of “in.” This is one of the reasons why sharing with other organizations is important – because other orgs can be “in” while being “out”.

Swarms are about people working together, all the time, in lots of ways, editing each other, fixing each other, helping each other, encouraging each other. Swarms are not about clear boxes, cubicles, or defined job descriptions.

Swarms are cheap and unknown. They are not about credit, glory, or money. They are not about the long term, being the biggest, being the best. They are about the goal.

Swarms are not perfect. They are not precision-guided machines, well-oiled and performing the same way every time. They accept imperfection, striving to be better but accept some error-rate and increase their own resilience.

Swarms are not closed. The borders between two similar swarms with lots of friends on both sides are necessarily a little … messy. You cannot draw clear boundaries: just accept that it will be blurred.

Swarms are not strategically expanded and perfectly planted. They spread organically, strewing seeds everywhere—some of which birth and some of which die. A high loss rate is known and accepted.

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• Swarm Training
• 1 simple, quick way to head toward a vision for your life