Friday thought · Systems & coordination

A Friday thought about bees 🐝

Ravikiran Patel · 18 September 2026

I’ve spent an unreasonable amount of time this week thinking about bees.
Not entirely by design....

A swarm made its appearance in my garden, if you’ve never seen one close up, it is quite a remarkable thing!

Thousands of them buzzing with apparent purpose.

  • No visible management structure
  • No steering committee
  • No programme board
  • No target operating model
  • No six-month implementation plan
  • Nobody appears to have issued an RFP

And yet, rather irritatingly, it works.

Some scouting, some returning with information, a few seemingly just buzzing about looking busy — and the hive keeps shifting its attention.

None of them appeared to understand the whole system, but somehow the system understood enough.

There is probably more in that than first appears.

Anyone else had a better operating model turn up uninvited in the garden this week?
🐝 🍯 🚩
Systems, coordination and the occasional flag — a visual reflection on bees, distributed intelligence and investment technology
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