I didn’t think I would write this post. It came out of trying to plan what to do next. Probably needs more thought.

If you want to convince the world to build something, you can go about it a number of ways. Or at least there is an ordering of who you try and convince when.

1. Yourself: Do you really want to build it? Is the current idea about the thing the right idea? You may or may not convince yourself totally before moving on to other people. As you will probably learn a lot while you try and convince other people.
2. The gatekeepers: If there is a regulatory body you need to convince them, from the get go, that they should not interfere with what you are trying to do. It is worth spending a fair bit of time with them as you need to understand them. But you needn’t convince them fully, just enough that you know your position with them and have an idea of how to communicate with them and what might be expected from you. It is good if they have some warning that something is coming down the pipe so they can get used to the idea.
3. The builders: To convince the builders to work on something for a bit your need two things. A stable stress free environment and an interesting demo. Heading off the gatekeepers is needed for the first condition. If you want builders to put lots of effort into something, the thing they are building must coincide with their core values. Money helps, but throwing money at the problem won’t get you the right team. You want to get people who care about the thing not the money.
4. The organizers: Highly valuable, but you need some building process for them to organize. They are also useful on the boundary between the world and the process of building.  Builders mistrust organizers a bit, so you don’t want to be organizer heavy.
5. The act of a few people building a thing will attract thinkers and money people, looking for insight and profit respectively. Make what use of them that you can to keep on the right track.
6. Ordinary People: Do what you can to convert them into builders, so that they can own the thing being built as well.

Cross-posted from my blog