
The Crucible Effect and the Scarcity of Collective Attention - dgr
http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/07/21/the-crucible-effect-and-the-scarcity-of-collective-attention/
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DanielBMarkham
Not trying to be snarky, but oddly enough I had a hard time paying attention
to this article. I found myself skimming a lot towards the bottom.

I'm really unsure whether there was something useful in there for me or not --
lots of name-dropping, business-book mentioning, even some allusions to
complicated math. At the end of the day, what I think the author was trying to
say is that 12 is the optimum size for a creative group and that 150 is the
optimum number of active fans you should have for your blog, and that 10,000
is the number of hours you have to spend on something to be good at it.

It would have been much better if the author had picked _one_ point and made
it cogently. Instead the article had this rambling, diffuse feeling to it.

I liked some of the data, and liked the points. The style just wasn't for me.

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bsaunder
_I had a hard time paying attention to this article. I found myself skimming a
lot towards the bottom._

Me too, but for me it was more of an excitement to see the next point. Rather
than being poorly written I'd say it was too interesting (if that's possible).

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biohacker42
A good description of cultural expectations at the top. Good comparison of
ping pong in India, China and the US and what that means for the skill of play
at ever level, prom casual to pro.

If enough people are great at something it's easy to learn greatness.

But then what seems like an interesting article just kept going and going and
going... tl.

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yannis
Tell me what the Roman Army didn't know and don't cover it with 'pseudo-
scientific', jargon.

Though the exact numbers of men in a legion varied, the basic pattern of
organization remained the same. The smallest unit was the tent group
(contubernium), composed of 8 men who shared a tent, a mule, and eating
equipment. These were organized into a disciplinary unit called a century
(despite the fact that a century typically had 80 rather than 100 men), under
the command of a centurion. The basic fighting unit was a cohort, composed of
six centuries (480 men plus 6 centurions). The legion itself was composed of
ten cohorts, and the first cohort had many extra men—the clerks, engineers,
and other specialists who did not usually fight—and the senior centurion of
the legion, the primipilus, or “number one javelin.”

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dschoon
This article is just filled with gems. The "Crucible" idea is both aptly named
and powerfully explanatory.

I do not think college is terribly good at educating. Even so, I'm forced to
admit the cliché is probably right: it's a powerfully life-changing, valuable
experience. I came out of it with a radically reshaped worldview, tremendous
energy, and much knowledge. My rate of progress while in college (in fact,
mostly a few specific years) was much higher than any other time I remember.

...But I don't look back and think of important classes taken or works read. I
see myself surrounded by brilliant, energetic peers. That's the Crucible
Effect he describes. We talk about it when thinking of "startup-friendly"
communities, or hacker groups, or even preserving the "character" of these
boards. We're trying to keep the Crucible Effect intact.

Interesting.

