Jargogled Impressions.

I completed the Walter Isaacson biography of Elon Musk sometime back and have been reflecting on the idea of the ‘lone geniuses’ versus what the musician Brian Eno calls ‘scenius’.

While Eno is referring to artistic and creative disciplines when he highlights the power of community and the pyramid like structure he borrows from the formation of an orchestra, the idea that science and technology as a creative endeavor is something Richard Hamming and Thomas Kuhn – the masters of science-historian/meta-thinkers talk about, which tells me that scenius is something that can be thought of for most of scientific pursuits too. A domain that Elon clearly epitomizes in our current generation.

Musk is known to bring a deep understanding to the big technological problems he is chasing with his various companies – Tesla, SpaceX, The Boring Company, xAi, Optimus, Neuralink, etc. Despite these seemingly disparate realms of scientific investigation, albeit with some common themes now connecting them (read: AI), the richest man in the world brings a surprisingly granular and detailed understanding. So, whether it’s the type of material to be used for the launch vehicles, the fuel that is most conducive for interstellar travel, the habit engineering that will be required on Mars, to the installation steps needed for a solar rooftop, the cost of a tweet, or the alignment problem with AI, etc., he seems to know it all, and also brings with him a decision-making skill and intuition that makes him take risks, break the sound barrier metaphorically on the pace of progress, all the while tweeting memes and antagonizing maybe half of the world. He is as much a master shit poster as he is an unapologetic humankind lover.

There’s no doubt that he is a genius. But the biography also depicts how his key lieutenants play a major role in handling his often-explosive bursts of energy (“the surge mindset” as Issaacson calls it), are able to hold their own (sometimes), or are able to meet his exacting standards with velocity of their work. It’s as if Musk is at the head of this pyramid orchestrating the work via vision and via quick and dirty decisions, and his trusted sub-geniuses are working hard to turn it into reality. A scenius is at play.

Musk is also famously part of the Paypal Mafia. In his book “The Founders”, Jimmy Soni highlighted in passing this mercurial but effective personality that drove the larger-than-celestial-beings vision that propels Musk forward and gives him the fuel (apart from Ambien and Red bull) to work on the various war fronts he has opened against stagnation and de-growth. But the book also highlights the role that the Paypal mafia / scenius played in shaping the character and the work ethic of the people who graduated from their early experiences to shape the world as we know it. There is a power to communal thinking that makes it possible for these folks to continue to share war stories with each other, crash in each other’s places, seek guidance and help from each other, and inspire each other. The compounding effect of this particular scenius is a compelling case study for what can happen when intellect meets a community and kicks-off a feedback loop.

What brings of this scenius or communal genius? In other words, genius embedded in a scene versus in a scene.

Kevin Kelly, in his blog, talkd about scenius and some common dimensions that propel it forward. Primarily, he posits, it’s a combination of a) an appreciative candor through mutual respect and taste for subtlety, b) a rapid exchange of tools and techniques through flaunting (something Musk is known to do with his AI demos, FSD promises), c) network effect of success (Roadster anyone?), and d) local tolerance for novelties (USA is notoriously a haven for rabid capitalists).

In a sense, it would seem that Musk has the aura and the tactical tools and the environment (capital, network, access, risk appetite) to goad the development of local scenius in each of his companies. Stripe, arguably the most famous private company alive today, is known to emphasize hiding ranks, pushing for learning, being a sticker for meticulousness – all factors that are known to drive scenius forward.

There are 2 modalities with which we must approach the idea of scenius or communal genius in our personal lives:

1. Building a scenius: either in your professional world or in your personal one, attempt to build scenius through deliberate actions. Scenius isn’t just networking by any other name though and one must be careful lest it be wielded as a justification for relentless networking. In fact, it’s a call to build a cohesive, tight-knit community of people with similar interests that can nudge you, guide you, push you, propel you, critique you, inspire you, or be inspired by you. By design, this needs to be scoped at the smallest level to give you the cohesion you need to really create strong ties. Something similar to all those posts inspired by Paul Graham format where they list the people who have reviewed the blog post and edited/commented before making it generally available to the public. Think about it – even blog posts going through scenius-participants to make them richer.
2. Participating in a scenius: living in a digital world, it’s not hard to find a scenius that works for you. But you need to demonstrate commitment and attention in order to participate in one, lest one be construed as mops versus as geeks.  To participate in one, you need specific knowledge, or specific skill, or specific interest that lets you contribute to the scenius versus leech off of it. It’s easy to do the latter, but much more meditative if you do the former.

Coming back to Musk, it strikes me that this one guy, currently defying laws of human potential, is a master at creating and sustaining the scenius through part-inspiration, part-hallucination, part-incentivization, and part-domination. They say culture eats strategy for breakfast. Culture == scenius for an organization. A leader who takes pains to notice can unleash a creative force like Disney, Apple, Tesla, Stripe, etc.