Build On The Marks
The trace decides where the next act goes.
Formerly Stigmergy
Work only where there is a mark.
Seen in Leonel Moura, robot paintings, e.g. 010304, 2004
Try it on your work
Leave a small physical mark wherever you finish something: a dot, a fold, an object set down. From then on, work only where a mark already is. Stop when you cannot find a marked place you want to work in. The pattern of marks is a map nobody drew.
Keep a running note where you write one line each time you stop. Start each new piece of work by reading only the last line and continuing from it, not from your plan. Stop after a day and read the whole note: the project steered itself.
For one week, make no decision about what to do next by planning. Do whatever the state of the work in front of you calls for, and leave the work in a state that calls for something. Stop at the end of the week and list what got done that was never on a list.
How it has been used
Termites build without a plan or a foreman: each one adds material where material already is, and the growing shape itself tells the next builder where to work. Wikis, ant trails and shared whiteboards all coordinate this way, through traces rather than talk.
Where it leads
Grouped under Help the parts work together