Conjuring Scenius — Packy McCormick

Scenius is The Eagle and Child pub in Oxford, where C.S Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien frequented and birthed three of the five best-selling fantasy novels of all time: The Chronicles of Narnia, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings; it’s The Bloomsbury Group, a loose collective of friends who met in England in the early 20th century such as Virginia Wo

Sceniuses balance the free flow of ideas with strict cultural norms. Members are competitive enough to motivate each other but cooperative enough to find joy in their success. They meet often enough to share ideas but work independently enough to develop their own voice. Though they are willing to adapt to changing circumstances, they root themselv

Although many have tried many times, it is not really possible to command scenius into being. Every start up company, or university would like their offices to be an example of scenius. The number of cities in the world hoping to recreate the scenius of Silicon Valley is endless, but very few have achieved anything close. Innumerable art scenes beg

Packy identified eight ingredients that, when combined, have a high chance of producing a scenius. A few of the best are place based ritual, non-zero-sum competition, and network effects of success.

1. Mutual respect and appreciation.  The first and possibly most important condition of collaboration. When departments even appear to be in opposition, the conditions for scenius collapse quickly.


2. Rapid exchange of tools and techniques.  At the heart of the open-source software movement is Github, where cod