A secret coup, a journey around the world — and, in India, the vision everything since descends from.
This topic carries part of the argument of the Consilient Manifesto — the universal call to action. ← Back to the call
Blyth was the crucible: 120-hour weeks, a stock that went up ten-fold on revenue the CEO could not explain, and a secret, bloodless coup I ran for a deniable Clinton backer — the immaculate revolution. The lesson became doctrine: truth-telling inside institutions must be made safe by architecture, because institutions will never volunteer it.
Then, on doctor's orders and Smiley's, the tropics — and around the world with Tullan Holmqvist. In India I concluded that population and affluence were locked terms and technology the only free one, and chose the coordination layer deliberately, as the hardest remaining problem and the one least suited to existing capital markets. Tesseract paid for the conviction: a five-fold return in about a year, and the friendships that seeded Evolve.
Two chapters of this phase I have not yet told — the post-GSB European summer, and the journey itself. Their pages are holding, and I would rather this record carried my account than its silence. What is already here: the coup, Tullan, and Tesseract.
These chapters are promised by the author and not yet entered. A placeholder here is an invitation, not an absence — if you were part of them, your account can arrive first.
One graph, four projections — the story where this was learned, the invention that delivers it, the vision claim it serves, and what it becomes in the Era of Abundance.
The coup taught the doctrine: truth-telling inside institutions must be made safe by architecture, because they will never volunteer it.
Open →The Grand VisionBorn in India from three locked terms and one free one — this phase is where the pillar gets its name.
Open →The CascadeThe hardest remaining problem was chosen knowing its solution would have to catalyze itself — the cascade was in the choice.
Open →Era of AbundanceWhat was concluded on the journey — technology as the only free variable — is what the era cashes out.
Open →A barely-public company's stock rose ten-fold on revenue produced by the one decision its CEO opposed, while the board ignored a year of fired…
Open →Genesis of the Grand VisionLarry Sonsini took Hare as his entrepreneur of the year — for the Berkeley loyalty and the Microsoft bridge — and handed him venture capital's true…
Open →Genesis of the Grand Vision · Realizing the Grand VisionDoug Ayer's ultimatum at Il Fornaio — hand operational control to Louis Woodhill or lose the financing — met the shortest negotiation in this record…
Open →“Imaginary engineers” — third floor, Etcheverry Hall
Open →PersonConsilient Architect — the node this graph was seeded from
Open →PersonMicrosoft's board, the TOPS study, and the door into everything
Open →Organization“Two Guys and a VAX” — the class project, and the door into Microsoft
Open →Organization1990–92 — the faculty, the classmates, and the prize he gave up
Open →PersonArchitect of Windows NT, in the next chair
Open →PersonThe executive crucible
Open →PersonTold Hare to camp somewhere else
Open →OrganizationOmnis — the only client-server tool that worked across everything
Open →OrganizationVAX, VMS, PDP — and the machines Hare learned on
Open →OrganizationA mainframe company turned client-server, and sold for a 500% year
Open →PersonCo-taught the Grove class, then joined Blyth's board
Open →OrganizationExpert testimony, and where arguments learn to survive attack
Open →PersonHarvard then Stanford, Tesseract, Benchmark — and a game of chicken with a city bus
Open →PersonOne young entrepreneur a year. Thirty minutes.
Open →PersonThe introduction to Sonsini
Open →PersonCofounder of Cornerstone Research, and an old friend
Open →PersonBlyth Software — and a connection between two parts of the record
Open →Every episode above distills from these. Where a page and its source differ, the source governs.
“I submitted the last prematurely. For Ray Lane, I heard he was a fan of complex adaptive systems theory, having learned…”
Open →In his own words · S-071 · 2026-08-17“It's Jeanne Bayless. Biographical info below. Note that John Bayless's involvement with CIENA, where Patrick Nettles…”
Open →In his own words · S-155 · 2026-08-31“[RAW USER SOURCE: Direct Narrative] So when I met with Dave Marquardt, it was in the spring of 1992, whenever we were…”
Open →In his own words · S-094 · 2026-08-20“[Document 1, verbatim — the vignettes as supplied, preserved in the archive at full length; published as the six…”
Open →The same nodes exist simultaneously in other projections of the one graph. Touching this hub surfaces its correlated partners — follow any of them and the graph re-collapses around it.
Shared with 2 of this hub's episodes.
Open →InstitutionShared with 2 of this hub's episodes.
Open →InstitutionShared with 1 of this hub's episodes.
Open →The ParadigmShared with 1 of this hub's episodes.
Open →InstitutionShared with 1 of this hub's episodes.
Open →The CircleShared with 1 of this hub's episodes.
Open →Every hub is deliberately incomplete. Correct anything wrong, add what only you know, or claim your entry — recorded, timestamped, and attributed to you.