Scenius, or Communal Genius

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

For the first time in human history, scenius is moving beyond physical geography. It’s happening on the Internet now. And it’s alive in obscure Discord forums, private group chats, and online schools. 

There’s a healthier way of thinking about creativity that the musician Brian Eno refers to as “scenius.” Under this model, great ideas are often birthed by a group of creative individuals—artists, curators, thinkers, theorists, and other tastemakers—who make up an “ecology of talent.” If you look back closely at history, many of the people who we t

If we forget about genius and think more about how we can nurture and contribute to a scenius, we can adjust our own expectations and the expectations of the worlds we want to accept us. We can stop asking what others can do for us, and start asking what we can do for others.

A scenius is a beautiful bubble that only forms under special conditions: friendly competition and appreciation, rapid exchange of new ideas, mutual sharing of success, and most importantly, a buffer against the outside world that creates space for transgression and general weirdness.

If we forget about genius and think more about how we can nurture and contribute to a scenius, we can adjust our own expectations and the expectations of the worlds we want to accept us. We can stop asking what others can do for us, and start asking what we can do for others.