interconnected-org-heqhgj.txt (12361B)
1 2 3 [1]Interconnected 4 5 A blog by Matt Webb 6 7 • [2]About 8 • [3]Archive 9 • [4]Work 10 11 Subscribe for $0 12 13 • [5]Email 14 • [6]RSS feed 15 • [7](What is a feed?) 16 17 Unoffice Hours 18 19 • [8]Book a call 20 • [9](What is this?) 21 22 a.k.a. genmon 23 24 • [10]Bluesky 25 • [11]X/Twitter 26 • [12]Insta 27 • [13]Mastodon 28 • [14]LinkedIn 29 30 Building the AI clock 31 32 • [15]Check out Poem/1 33 34 Singing the gospel of collective efficacy 35 36 20.01, Friday 30 Jan 2026 [16]Link to this post 37 38 If I got to determine the school curriculum, I would be optimising for 39 collective efficacy. 40 41 So I live in a gentrified but still mixed neighbourhood in London (we’re the 42 newbies at just under a decade) and we have an active WhatsApp group. 43 44 Recently there was a cold snap and a road nearby iced over – it was in the 45 shade and cyclists kept on wiping out on it. For some reason the council didn’t 46 come and salt it. 47 48 Somebody went out and created a sign on a weighted chair so it didn’t blow 49 away. And this is a small thing but I LOVE that I live somewhere there is a 50 shared belief that (a) our neighbourhood is worth spending effort on, and (b) 51 you can just do things. 52 53 Similarly we all love when the swifts visit (beautiful birds), so somebody 54 started a group to get swift nest boxes made and installed collectively, then 55 applied for subsidy funding, then got everyone to chip in such that people who 56 couldn’t afford it could have their boxes paid for, and now suddenly we’re all 57 writing to MPs and following the legislation to include swift nesting sites in 58 new build houses. Etc. 59 60 It’s called collective efficacy, the belief that you can make a difference by 61 acting together. 62 63 (People who have heard of Greta Thunberg tend to [17]have a stronger sense of 64 collective efficacy (2021).) 65 66 It’s so heartening. 67 68 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 69 70 You can just do things 71 72 That phrase was a Twitter thing for a while, and I haven’t done the archaeology 73 on the phrase but there’s this blog post by Milan Cvitkovic from 2020: [18] 74 Things you’re allowed to do. 75 76 e.g. 77 78 • `Say I don’t know' 79 • `Tape over annoying LED lights' 80 • `Buy goods/services from your friends' 81 82 I read down the list saying to myself, yeah duh of course, to almost every 83 single one, then hit certain ones and was like – oh yeah, I can just do that. 84 85 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 86 87 I think collective efficacy is maybe 50% taking off the blinkers and giving 88 yourself (as a group) permission to do things. 89 90 But it’s also 50% belief that it’s worth acting at all. 91 92 And that belief is founded part in care, and part in faith that what you are 93 doing can actually make a difference. 94 95 For instance: 96 97 A lot of my belief in the power of government comes from the fact that, back in 98 the day, London’s tech scene was not all that. So in 2009 I worked with 99 Georgina Voss to figure out the gap, then in 2010 bizarrely got invited on a 100 trade mission to India with the Prime Minister and got the opportunity to make 101 the case about east London to them, and based on that No. 10 launched Tech City 102 (which we had named on the plane), and that acted as a catalyst on the work 103 that everyone was already doing to get the cluster going, and then we were off 104 to the races. WIRED magazine wrote it up in 2019: [19]The story of London’s 105 tech scene, as told by those who built it (paywall-busting link). 106 107 So I had that experience and now I believe that, if I can find the right ask, 108 there’s always the possibility to make things better. 109 110 That’s a rare experience. I’m very lucky. 111 112 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 113 114 ALTHOUGH. 115 116 Should we believe in luck? 117 118 Psychologist Richard Wiseman, [20]The Luck Factor (2003, PDF): 119 120 I gave both [self-identified] lucky and unlucky people a newspaper, and 121 asked them to look through it and tell me how many photographs were inside. 122 On average, the unlucky people took about two minutes to count the 123 photographs whereas the lucky people took just seconds. Why? Because the 124 second page of the newspaper contained the message “Stop counting - There 125 are 43 photographs in this newspaper.” 126 127 `Lucky people generate their own good fortune via four basic principles.' 128 129 They are skilled at creating and noticing chance opportunities, make lucky 130 decisions by listening to their intuition, create self-fulfilling 131 prophesies via positive expectations, and adopt a resilient attitude that 132 transforms bad luck into good. 133 134 I insist that people are not lucky nor unlucky. Maybe some amount of luck is 135 habit? 136 137 You can just be lucky? 138 139 (Well, not absolutely, privilege is big, but maybe let’s recalibrate luck from 140 believing it is entirely random, that’s what I’m saying.) 141 142 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 143 144 When I was a kid I used to play these unforgivingly impossible video games – 145 that’s what home video games were like then. No open world play, multiple ways 146 to win, or adaptive difficulty. Just pixel-precise platform jumps and timing. 147 148 Yet you always knew that there was a way onto the next screen, however long it 149 took. 150 151 It taught a kind of stubborn optimism. 152 153 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 154 155 Or, in another context, `No fate but what we make.' 156 157 Same same. 158 159 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 160 161 All of which makes me ask: 162 163 Could we invent free-to-plan mobile games which train luckiness? 164 165 Are there games for classrooms that would cement a faith in collective efficacy 166 in kids? 167 168 Or maybe it’s proof by demonstration. 169 170 I’m going into my kid’s school in a couple of weeks to show the class photos of 171 what it looks like inside factories. The stuff around us was made by people 172 like us; it’s not divine in origin; factories are just rooms. 173 174 I have faith that - somehow - at some point down the line - this act will help. 175 176 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 177 178 If you enjoyed this post, please consider sharing it by email or on social 179 media. [21]Here’s the link. Thanks, —Matt. 180 181 182 183 Most recent posts 184 185 • Singing the gospel of collective efficacy 30 Jan 2026 (This post) 186 • [22]Do today’s work today 23 Jan 2026 187 • [23]The natural home for AI agents is your Reminders app 15 Jan 2026 188 • [24]Real like ghosts or real like celebrities? 9 Jan 2026 189 • [25]My top posts in 2025 3 Jan 2026 190 • [26]More scraps from my notes file 26 Dec 2025 191 • [27]Filtered for conspiracy theories 19 Dec 2025 192 • [28]My new fave thing to go to is algoraves 11 Dec 2025 193 • [29]My mental model of the AI race 5 Dec 2025 194 • [30]Context plumbing 29 Nov 2025 195 • [31]Spinning up a new thing: Inanimate 19 Nov 2025 196 • [32]3 books with Samuel Arbesman 14 Nov 2025 197 198 Continue reading: [33]All in 2025 199 200 streak New posts for 305 consecutive weeks (see: [34]blogging tips) 201 202 New? Start here: [35]Best of 2025 (also [36]2024, [37]2023, [38]2022, [39]2021, 203 [40]2020) 204 Or explore the archives: [41]On this day 205 206 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 207 208 Archive 209 210 • [42]2026 5 posts 211 • [43]2025 61 posts 212 • [44]2024 60 posts 213 • [45]2023 68 posts 214 • [46]2022 96 posts 215 • [47]2021 128 posts 216 • [48]2020 118 posts 217 • [49]2019 23 posts 218 • [50]2018 47 posts 219 • [51]2017 22 posts 220 • [52]2016 48 posts 221 • [53]2015 88 posts 222 • [54]2014 30 posts 223 • [55]2013 6 posts 224 • [56]2012 27 posts 225 • [57]2011 76 posts 226 • [58]2010 2 posts 227 • [59]2009 2 posts 228 • [60]2008 59 posts 229 • [61]2007 20 posts 230 231 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 232 [62][ ] Search 233 Since February 2000. Copyright © 2026 Matt Webb. 234 235 p.s. here’s [70]my blogroll and the [71]colophon. 236 237 238 References: 239 240 [1] https://interconnected.org/home/ 241 [2] https://interconnected.org/ 242 [3] https://interconnected.org/home/2026/01/30/efficacy#archive 243 [4] https://www.actsnotfacts.com/ 244 [5] https://buttondown.com/genmon 245 [6] https://interconnected.org/home/feed 246 [7] https://aboutfeeds.com/ 247 [8] https://calendly.com/mwie/30min 248 [9] https://interconnected.org/home/2020/09/24/unoffice_hours 249 [10] https://bsky.app/profile/genmon.org 250 [11] https://x.com/genmon 251 [12] https://www.instagram.com/genmon/ 252 [13] https://mastodon.social/@genmon 253 [14] https://www.linkedin.com/in/genmon/ 254 [15] https://poem.town/ 255 [16] https://interconnected.org/home/2026/01/30/efficacy 256 [17] https://interconnected.org/home/2021/04/08/efficacy 257 [18] https://milan.cvitkovic.net/writing/things_youre_allowed_to_do/ 258 [19] https://archive.ph/GJrTT 259 [20] http://richardwiseman.com/resources/The_Luck_Factor.pdf 260 [21] https://interconnected.org/home/2026/01/30/efficacy 261 [22] https://interconnected.org/home/2026/01/23/umpa 262 [23] https://interconnected.org/home/2026/01/15/reminders 263 [24] https://interconnected.org/home/2026/01/09/real 264 [25] https://interconnected.org/home/2026/01/03/top-posts 265 [26] https://interconnected.org/home/2025/12/26/scraps 266 [27] https://interconnected.org/home/2025/12/19/filtered 267 [28] https://interconnected.org/home/2025/12/11/live 268 [29] https://interconnected.org/home/2025/12/05/training 269 [30] https://interconnected.org/home/2025/11/28/plumbing 270 [31] https://interconnected.org/home/2025/11/19/inanimate 271 [32] https://interconnected.org/home/2025/11/14/arbesman 272 [33] https://interconnected.org/home/2025 273 [34] https://interconnected.org/home/2020/09/10/streak 274 [35] https://interconnected.org/home/2026/01/03/top-posts 275 [36] https://interconnected.org/home/2024/12/30/top-posts 276 [37] https://interconnected.org/home/2023/12/22/top-posts 277 [38] https://interconnected.org/home/2022/12/21/top_posts 278 [39] https://interconnected.org/home/2021/12/23/top_posts 279 [40] https://interconnected.org/home/2020/12/17/top_posts 280 [41] https://interconnected.org/home/on-this-day 281 [42] https://interconnected.org/home/2026 282 [43] https://interconnected.org/home/2025 283 [44] https://interconnected.org/home/2024 284 [45] https://interconnected.org/home/2023 285 [46] https://interconnected.org/home/2022 286 [47] https://interconnected.org/home/2021 287 [48] https://interconnected.org/home/2020 288 [49] https://interconnected.org/home/2019 289 [50] https://interconnected.org/home/2018 290 [51] https://interconnected.org/home/2017 291 [52] https://interconnected.org/home/2016 292 [53] https://interconnected.org/home/2015 293 [54] https://interconnected.org/home/2014 294 [55] https://interconnected.org/home/2013 295 [56] https://interconnected.org/home/2012 296 [57] https://interconnected.org/home/2011 297 [58] https://interconnected.org/home/2010 298 [59] https://interconnected.org/home/2009 299 [60] https://interconnected.org/home/2008 300 [61] https://interconnected.org/home/2007 301 [70] https://interconnected.org/home/blogroll 302 [71] https://interconnected.org/home/2024/10/28/colophon