Sarah Drinkwater

Rituals are how we make meaning, personally and together.

In games studies, these worlds-within-a-world are called magic circles. A magic circle is the space where the game takes place.

We need ritual technology. Technology designed for ritual use.

Why? Most of the software we use daily is designed to engagement-max. Social media feeds, loot boxes, compulsion loops, gang gang yes yes yes ice cream so good. You’re caught in a feedback loop with the algorithm, and you are the squishiest part of that loop.

Where social media is compulsive, tools for thought are reflective. Where social media is here and now, tools for thought dwell in the long now. Tools for thought slowly build compounding momentum through low, slow feedback loops that point us in the directions we want to develop.

The way managers are taught to run companies seems to be like modular design in the sense that you treat subtrees of the org chart as black boxes. You tell your direct reports what to do, and it's up to them to figure out how. But you don't get involved in the details of what they do. That would be micromanaging them, which is bad.

Hire good people and give them room to do their jobs. Sounds great when it's described that way, doesn't it? Except in practice, judging from the report of founder after founder, what this often turns out to mean is: hire professional fakers and let them drive the company into the ground.

A go-to-network (GTN) strategy is a plan that details how an organization can grow and engage networks of potential customers in order to build connections and authentic relationships, and ultimately convince them to buy their product or service. 

GTN will enable your company to grow faster and more efficiently by leveraging the power of your networks of employees, customers, fans, community members, and more. 

The approach includes tactics related to product-led growth, community building, leveraging events, personal branding, and other forms of network building.

Modern growth strategies are all go-to-network

At their core, all these growth strategies have the same underlying philosophy. Implicitly or explicitly, they set out to foster deeper connections between the company and a specific network