What seems like years ago (and is, in CT time) I wrote the first set of ideas around a framework for a multi-pronged, cross-industry collective. And while my skepticism of the term and concept of a DAO (which is seldom decentralized, autonomous, or organized) has grown, my affection for the term as a type of suffix has only grown. Similarly, so has my interest in an interdisciplinary organization that can simultaneously or concurrently tackle projects and problems in ways that other organizations could not. Part of this is by incorporating services or skillsets that typically are hard-pressed to be viable on their own -- niche services like emergency comms, internal HR, one-off design, etc -- enabling the collectivization of individuals that specialize in these fields to work as part of a profitable whole.

While I have previously indicated an unwillingness to explore the actual concept of leadership in my writing, as always conversations with smarter friends have made me start thinking -- and so here we are.

After writing my previous article I ended up talking a lot with giga-brained friend 0xcarnation. Carn asked, as always, an incredibly prescient question that cut to the heart of my thought process: “So what do you want to do?” Meaning, ok you’re thinking about DAOs and governance, you’ve created a model that is too centralized for many use-cases, and each concept we threw around didn’t fit your desires. So what did I want?

In the wake of the SushiSwap leadership crisis and my own place in the corporate financial world, I started thinking more and more about the actual structure of governance. There are a wealth of self-help and philosophical texts on the more abstract idea of what being a leader means -- go read the Art of War, Kill Six Billion Demons, the Prince, whatever. I have always been drawn to these scholarly writing on the nature of leadership and governance. Invariably when power coalesces – be it in the state, in business, in war – there will be those who comment on it and attempt to codify and analyze the concept of “leadership” itself -- and while those are excellent for a view of the individual as leader, it was more interesting for me to consider governance. Governance, in my estimation, is byword for prudent, ethical leadership that aspires to, at the end of the day, do more right things than wrong things, while maximizing the benefits of one’s own state/organization/unit. I wondered at how we might iterate on our notions of governance in the new world of DAOs, particularly given the failures of both the traditional systems and this newest one. As always, I try to seek the middle path in all things.

Just as a diversion, I wanted to apply the teachings of Miyamoto Musashi to our space and ecosystem. There is much to be said of the endless repetition of inspirational or pseudo-philosophical quotes (of this, I must bow to Zhu Su, who remains the undisputed master of this art form). However, without delving into the toxic realms of the grindset and the sigma mentality (complete with images of Peaky Blinders and Wolf of Wall Street), I think there is a great value in reading the classic texts of personal growth and philosophy. We must remember that Musashi is not merely a swordsman, but a master painter and calligrapher -- that knowledge is passed down for its inherent ability to be applied to many disciplines. In this way, while one can generally read a text and comprehend it, it is also beneficial to apply a directed focus while reading -- which is to say, visualizing and contextualizing the information.

Basho speaks here in 1689 of the ruin of Hiraizumi, after the defeat of the Fujiwara in 1189, elaborating:

I’m Kitsune.