I am interested in books on this topic as well However, the answer to the original question does not seem that mysterious to me. Most evolutionary psychologists describe the mechanisms of cooperation that made it possible for humans to grow increasingly large organizations (tribes, city states, corporations, nation states) aligned behind some commonality. The forces that make people agree to cooperate don’t seem to matter that much. Once there is a social contract in place and a hierarchy of leadership, people align themselves behind objectives that seem important. It seems natural that groups of people would build stadiums, churches, political parties, trade mechanisms, armies, factories, roads, etc. I would ask a complementary question: what would you need to disrupt or remove in order to make it very hard for humans to build things at scale?
Suppose you wanted to build, say, a bridge. Knowing how to create the agreements necessary in order to do that might be ‘solving a coordination problem’ without necessarily being ‘why is it natural for these problems to get solved’.
Started reading this book and made it to chapter 3 before giving up. Mostly ends up being a tour of various pitfalls when pursuing something ambitious. For example:
Your data can come from a fraudulent source.
Confirmation bias can blind you to potential sources of failure.
These points felt obvious/familiar and I was hoping for a more systematic treatment.
I am interested in books on this topic as well However, the answer to the original question does not seem that mysterious to me. Most evolutionary psychologists describe the mechanisms of cooperation that made it possible for humans to grow increasingly large organizations (tribes, city states, corporations, nation states) aligned behind some commonality. The forces that make people agree to cooperate don’t seem to matter that much. Once there is a social contract in place and a hierarchy of leadership, people align themselves behind objectives that seem important. It seems natural that groups of people would build stadiums, churches, political parties, trade mechanisms, armies, factories, roads, etc. I would ask a complementary question: what would you need to disrupt or remove in order to make it very hard for humans to build things at scale?
Suppose you wanted to build, say, a bridge. Knowing how to create the agreements necessary in order to do that might be ‘solving a coordination problem’ without necessarily being ‘why is it natural for these problems to get solved’.
I noticed that this book just came out, and might be relevant. I will probably read it at some point and report back.
https://www.amazon.com/Voltage-Effect-Ideas-Great-Scale/dp/B0979KTYJR/
Started reading this book and made it to chapter 3 before giving up. Mostly ends up being a tour of various pitfalls when pursuing something ambitious. For example:
Your data can come from a fraudulent source.
Confirmation bias can blind you to potential sources of failure.
These points felt obvious/familiar and I was hoping for a more systematic treatment.