The ideal protocol makes coordination cost linear in total and flat per participant; a good-enough one drops both down one scaling class. But protocols carry fixed costs and hidden constants, so they only pay off past a certain size. And that size is shrinking fast because, *waves hands and gestures, AI.
In this episode, I use *Civilization IV* to look at that problem through Ronald Coase, Oliver Williamson, and Kenneth Arrow. We’ll look at make-or-buy decisions, the administrative cost of bringing more work inside the organization, and what happens when there is simply too much information for one leader to keep track of.