Lessons from Samo Burja

Slovenian-American sociologist and strategist Samo Burja is a modern thinker whose work delves into the intricate workings of power, institutions, and the very fabric of civilization. Through his essays, interviews, and the consulting firm he founded, Bismarck Analysis, Burja has introduced a unique lexicon for understanding the forces that shape our world. His concepts of "Great Founder Theory," "live versus dead players," and "intellectual dark matter" offer a compelling lens through which to view history, strategy, and the future of society.

On Great Founder Theory and Institutions

At the core of Burja's work is the idea that exceptional individuals, or "Great Founders," have an outsized impact on the world through the institutions they create. These institutions become the vessels for knowledge, social technologies, and ultimately, civilization itself.

"What drives social change throughout history and the present? What are the origins of institutional health or sclerosis? My answer is that a small number of functional institutions founded by exceptional individuals form the core of society." [1]
"These institutions are imperfectly imitated by the rest of society, multiplying their effect. The original versions outperform their imitators, and are responsible for the creation and renewal of society and all the good things that come with it—whether we think of technology, wealth, or the preservation of a society's values." [1]
"Over time, functional institutions decay. As the landscape of founders and institutions changes, so does the landscape of society." [1][2]
"I will call those who found the most functional institutions that contribute to the bedrock of their civilizations Great Founders. Through the creation of institutions, Great Founders become the primary force that shapes society." [3]
"To examine a society, then, we should first look for functioning institutions. A simple way to do this is to identify businesses, religions, governments, and so forth that are radically outperforming their competitors. We then seek out the founders of these institutions." [3]
"Functional institutions are the exception." [3]
"Creating functional institutions requires a founder who knows how to coordinate people to achieve the institution's purpose, and who uses this knowledge to build new institutions or dismantle and rebuild existing ones." [3]
"People who build institutions are far more impactful than people who don't, and among those, people who build functional institutions are by far the most impactful." [3]
"An abundance of functional institutions is the foundation of a flourishing civilization." [4]
"Institutions can only be founded or successfully operated by live players." [4]
"Institutions depend on traditions of knowledge for their functionality." [4]
"There has never been an immortal society. No matter how technologically advanced our own society is, it is unlikely to be an exception." [2]

On Live versus Dead Players

Burja distinguishes between two types of actors in the world: "live players" who are capable of novel thought and action, and "dead players" who are merely following a script.

"A live player is a person or well-coordinated group of people that is able to do things they have not done before." [5][6]
"A dead player is a person or group of people that is working off a script, incapable of doing new things." [5][6]
"You can predict what will happen in a society if you understand its landscape of live players. Societies with few live players will stagnate; societies with many live players will develop and adapt." [5][7]
"If you figure out whether a player is alive or dead, you can predict how they will respond to things and what that means you can do." [5]
"If you find out that a player is dead, then you know that you can confront them in ways that are not known to them, and they will not be able to fight back." [5]
"A player will die if their tradition of knowledge dies and they are unable to replace their thinkers or theorists." [5][6]
"A player will also die if their tight coordination is replaced by formal structures, which can happen as members of an organization change. If you're constrained by formal structures, it becomes harder to go off script, and this won't be adaptive enough." [5][6]
"If you look at a live player in year one, year five, year eight, year ten, they will be a different person every single time." [8]

On Intellectual Dark Matter

A significant portion of the knowledge that underpins our civilization is not explicitly written down or easily accessible. Burja refers to this as "intellectual dark matter."

"Knowledge that we can show exists, but cannot directly access, rests at the foundations of society and technology." [9][10]
"We must examine intellectual dark matter: knowledge we cannot see publicly, but whose existence we can infer because our institutions would fly apart if the knowledge we see were all there was." [9][11]
"There are many forms of intellectual dark matter, but the three principal ones are lost, proprietary, and tacit knowledge." [9]
"Tacit knowledge is knowledge that can't properly be transmitted via verbal or written instruction, like the ability to create great art or assess a startup." [12]
"Institutions dependent on lost knowledge are running on autopilot and will fail to adapt or renew themselves." [9]
"Looking at society today if we only saw what was written down what was explicitly laid out what was explicitly documented on Wikipedia for example This could never hold together." [13]
"Every step you might take in transforming the intellectual dark matter of our society into visible intellectual matter...is a step that reduces the fragility of our society." [13]
"We are standing on top of a vast system of institutions powered by intellectual dark matter." [9]
"A classical example of this is perhaps that to manufacture a Saturn V engine...would today require a major re-engineering effort by NASA." [13]
"The Industrial Revolution stopped before it was ever completed. The aftermath is not a clean and developed world, but lost knowledge and civilizational decline." [14]

On Power and Strategy

Burja's analysis often revolves around the dynamics of power and the strategies employed by different actors.

"Power can be used to accomplish a very broad range of goals. As such, many kinds of actors will aim to acquire power in the pursuit of their goals." [15]
"The more effective they are and the better their understanding of reality is, the likelier they are to seek power." [15]
"Power that comes from victory in competition is additive, while power that comes through the creation of functional institutions is multiplicative, and the results of protracted, indecisive fighting are subtractive." [4]
"Those who would pursue power, then, are advised first, to build, second, to fight and win, and third, to avoid interminable conflict." [4]
"The reality of power, as he conceives it, involves a constant struggle for scarce resources between players at all levels, between and across empires." [4]
"Just because someone is called the foreign minister of a country, doesn't mean they have any treaty-making ability whatsoever. It might exist de jure, but does it exist de facto?" [16]

On Knowledge and Society

The transmission, preservation, and loss of knowledge are central themes in Burja's work, directly impacting the health of a civilization.

"Traditions of knowledge are very difficult to preserve." [4]
"Modern video media may shorten attention spans and distract from longer-form means of communication... But critically overlooked is its unlocking a form of mass-scale tacit knowledge transmission which is historically unprecedented." [12]
"Learners who wish to acquire tacit knowledge, but who are unable to figure things out on their own, are therefore limited by their access to personal observation of skilled people." [12]
"True autodidacts who can invent their own techniques are rare, but many can learn by watching and imitating." [12]
"Our knowledge of history decays over time." [17]
"Knowledge is by its nature extremely fragmented in society." [18]

Burja offers a nuanced view on social constructs and the interplay between social and material technologies.

"Often it is said that various things that are a part of everyday lives are social constructs. I think this is completely true! They are social constructs. Just as my home is a physical construct, you don't necessarily want to deconstruct all your physical constructs and you don't want to deconstruct all your social constructs." [16][19]
"Technology doesn't disrupt society. Society adopts technology through a process of social re-engineering. This can't happen without functional institutions." [10][14]
"A lot of social technologies requires material technology too. I don't think we can have...global markets without the rapid technology of transportation and communication." [18]
"A failure of these social technologies ultimately results in a failure of the material technologies at hand." [13]

On the Future and Civilization

Burja’s work is ultimately concerned with the long-term trajectory of our civilization and what is required for its survival and flourishing.

"To achieve a positive future that defies these odds, we must understand the hidden forces that shape society." [2][8]
"The ultimate goal of Bismarck Analysis is to heal and improve the institutional structures of our civilization, by working with and augmenting the individuals and organizations who maintain and advance them." [20]
"Why Civilization Is Older Than We Thought: New discoveries are adding millennia to our past. The implications should change our future." [10]
"I research how civilizations function." [21][22]

Learn more:

Lessons from Samo Burja

On Great Founder Theory and Institutions

On Live versus Dead Players

On Intellectual Dark Matter

On Power and Strategy

On Knowledge and Society

On the Future and Civilization

Written by Antoine Buteau

Lessons from Dan Wang

Lessons from David M. Cote

Lessons from Samo Burja

On Great Founder Theory and Institutions

On Live versus Dead Players

On Intellectual Dark Matter

On Power and Strategy

On Knowledge and Society

On Social Constructs and Technology

On the Future and Civilization

Written by Antoine Buteau

Lessons from Dan Wang

Lessons from David M. Cote