Sorrel Salb

Although many have tried many times, it is not really possible to command scenius into being... The best you can do is NOT KILL IT. When it pops up, don’t crush it. When it starts rolling, don’t formalize it. When it sparks, fan it. But don’t move the scenius to better quarters. Try to keep accountants and architects and police and do-gooders away

But today, you don’t have to live in California, Manhattan or Paris to find your people. You don’t even have to live in the same town or street of your people.

Look at  Austin Kleon , Lisa Congdon, Wendy MacNaughton,  Maria Popova , Oliver Jeffers,  Amanda Palmer …  Tim Ferriss ,  Ryan Holiday ,  Chase Jarvis

Looking backwards, it’s striking how unevenly distributed progress has been in the past...the discoveries that came to elevate standards of living for everyone arose in comparatively tiny geographic pockets of innovative effort.

The great music scenes of our time had this ecology of talent. Motown, Seattle, Los Angeles, the list goes on. Creative competitiveness, imitation, idea expansion and support are key drivers in the advancement of a music scene. In Show your Work, Austin Kleon writes

“Scenius doesn’t take away from the achievements of those great individuals; i

When looking back at History there are dozens and dozens of stories about specific time periods where an uncanny number of creative spirits gathered within the same school, street, building, found each other and imagined on a much larger scale that they could have alone.

There is no one leader but rather mutual influences, respect, and possibly appr

Kevin Kelly provided us with four ingredients for scenius: 

• Mutual appreciation 


• Rapid exchange of tools and techniques 


• Network effects of success 


• Local tolerance for the novelties

Network effects of success : Silicon Valley is famous for its “mafias.” As companies sell or IPO for billions of dollars, they make many of their employees very wealthy. Those employees form new companies, support each other, and invest in the next generation of companies. ThePayPal Mafia, Silicon Valley’s most famous, includes entrepreneurs who w