Today’s topic:

Clans, networks, collectives, and families.

I’m fascinated by groups that ‘win’ through having strong norms that orient their members towards broader achievement and mastery of the external world.

There’s a pattern language that exists here which is underdiscussed, but it’s the reason why YC/SF startups tend to be 1000x more succesfful than startups in NYC, it’s the reason why certain international business diasporas tend to be so successful (Sindhis/Jews/Lebanese), it’s the reason you have dominant ‘business families’ and ‘political families’ in many regions, towns, and emerging countries.

It’s worth noting that a fair % of these clans can be rent-seeking, productivity retarding, and degenerate in various ways. Think of Fukuyama’s description of ‘big man politics’, in which a tribal leader gets access to the central government and distributes the dole to his ‘people’ and patrons. The pre-existing environment doesn’t even have to be zero sum for you to make it zero sum.

Here’s a description of this phenomena in Papua New Guinea:

 

Given that we’re talking about Papua New Guinea, one of the most violent, and, candidly, degenerate cultures in the world, it’s easy to think that this practice isn’t prominent in ostensibly advanced nations, ie the UK/Europe/US. Alas, this is not the case – and that’s fine(ish)!

What I’d like to argue is that:

(1) Clan and in-group practices are fairly universal and naturally arise.

(2) There are patterns that can make these practices poisitive (i.e coordinating a group to do meaningful work that produces value for the broader world).

(3) There are patterns that can make these practices negative (i.e closing off the political realm for anyone that has the wrong surname).

(4) We can learn from (2) and even (3), and find ways to think about how we might want to practice these ourselves; ideally oriented towards the good. More YC/Paypal Mafia than Siccilian Mafia (no matter how alluring the aesthetic of Sopranos might be!).

I’ll dig into these patterns another time.