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Stigmergy Is Magic

Written by Adam Temple | Mar 20, 2014 7:00:00 AM

From Wikipedia:

Stigmergy is a mechanism of indirect coordination between agents or actions.[1] The principle is that the trace left in the environment by an action stimulates the performance of a next action, by the same or a different agent. In that way, subsequent actions tend to reinforce and build on each other, leading to the spontaneous emergence of coherent, apparently systematic activity.

It’s kinda a synonym for self organization. Embracing intelligent agents in a way that creates a synergy.  I think of Valve’s organization structure, along with the jet engine Lab of GE, anthills and other things.

Allowing stigmergy to happen requires that certain parts of your organization embrace a flatter hierarchy. There are natural tradeoffs to the system, one of them being better accuracy at a higher price sometimes. But if you have high accuracy, getting there at possibly a higher price is well worth it.