Ivo
Ivo Velitchkov

https://www.linkandth.ink

Exploring socio‑technical systems across scales – individuals, networks, organizations, society. Author of Essential Balances.

Working daily with knowledge graphs for many years.

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Last Notes

2026-03-30 11:44:12 UTC

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Voltaire ended some of his commercial letters with a quick start guide. Example:
✉️"P.S. The prices are marked on a little piece of parchment attached to the watches; when you want to start one, you must remove a small piece of paper which stops the plate and the balance-wheel."
#nevent1q…sfky

2026-03-26 15:23:21 UTC

Last week at the #PKM Summit in #Utrecht, I shared my work so far on how we can increase the likelihood of serendipitous events and eventually create #serendipity #protocols.
Here are the slides https://kvistgaard.github.io/slides/serendipity/pkmsummit-2026
What that covered was basically some principles, a couple of models, nine patterns, and four practices: Today-is-later, Graph Pruning, PIQ, and Hot Prompting.
Some of them are already described in this series of essays:
https://www.linkandth.ink/p/serendipity-protocol-series
https://blossom.primal.net/7b0e626e22ad9a9b9c172de4a1cc9a2ce8851d67ac4cd82d60b4056b62800cc3.png

2026-02-09 14:23:15 UTC

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Paywall removed.
#nevent1q…j4zj

2026-02-06 14:13:49 UTC

Some facts about Voltaire's watchmaking business:
👱Craftsmen: from 40 in 1770 to 600 in 1773
💰Revenue: from 450K (1775) to 600K (1776) livres (~ €10mln today)
🌍Markets: Spain, France, Russia, Turkey, Holland, Italy, Algeria, Tunisia
https://www.linkandth.ink/p/voltaire-the-entrepreneur

2026-01-20 11:39:01 UTC

There are many benefits when the inference rules are included in the knowledge graph. One benefit is the decoupling of data and application. It lowers the cost of integration and the cost of change. Another is the improved data governance.
A third one is the gain in flexibility.
The same logic can be expressed with different rule structures. To illustrate this point, I constructed a graph of four simple rules that can express the same logic in a dozen different configurations. I took six of them to compare them. So we have six deterministic systems that, given the same input (graph of asserted triples), produce the same output (graph of inferred triples).
Yet these six systems differ in their performance, fault tolerance, and cost of change.
The results are interesting not just for what they tell us about the use of this particular technology (#SHACL), but for system engineering in general, beyond graphs and rules.
https://blossom.primal.net/14586cc37adaae2b9696489d8265501c4b05e8d917d63057b80a0fad6746ca57.png
Details in the new L&T post
https://www.linkandth.ink/p/rules-on-graphs-in-graphs-of-rules-993

2026-01-07 17:50:26 UTC

Now starts my third year on Substack
Some stats for 2025:
✍️17 essays, 45K words (39 overall, 98K words)
📜The longest (6.7k words): Beyond Decentralization, https://www.linkandth.ink/p/beyond-decentralization
📜The shortest (882 words) : Work-life balance? https://www.linkandth.ink/p/work-life-balance
🥇Most viewed and liked (2025 and all time): Requisite Inefficiency, https://www.linkandth.ink/p/requisite-inefficiency

2025-12-30 17:42:33 UTC

My 2nd year on Substack
Some stats for 2025:
✍️17 essays, 45K words
📜The longest (6.7k): Beyond Decentralization, https://www.linkandth.ink/p/beyond-decentralization
📜The shortest (882 ) : Work-life balance? https://www.linkandth.ink/p/work-life-balance
🥇Most viewed and liked: Requisite Inefficiency, https://www.linkandth.ink/p/requisite-inefficiency

2025-10-21 19:17:24 UTC

Fourth post (
https://www.linkandth.ink/p/universal-data-facade-part-1
) in the Containment series (
https://www.linkandth.ink/p/containment-series
)

2025-10-12 20:12:03 UTC

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And here's the recording
https://youtu.be/uFKNYM4CgrM
#protocols #platforms
#nevent1q…wjyh

2025-07-15 09:13:22 UTC

It's 50y since the publication of Platform for Change by Stafford Beer, so the title of my talk at this year's Metaphorum (an annual conference for developing Beer's legacy) was Protocols for Change. Here's the 60-slide deck I used.
https://kvistgaard.github.io/slides/protocols/metaphorum-2025/
#protocols #platforms

2025-07-08 17:53:45 UTC

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Ise
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2025-07-08 17:52:13 UTC

Ou je u, c'est un a une belle cszs quisza@nprofile…qm68 commence à ia

2025-06-02 16:05:21 UTC

Leaders either cause harm or don't remain for long. Platforms, whether digital or otherwise, are susceptible to power imbalances and misuse. Protocols can enhance the resilience of socio-technical systems and the agency of the participants.
https://www.linkandth.ink/p/leader-platform-protocol
#protocols #platforms

2025-04-08 15:56:53 UTC

Here it is, finally, the non-nerdy, updated and refined version of the theory of Requisite Inefficiency, which some of you may remember from over a decade ago.
Some of what is not needed for what is known is an indispensable resource to deal with what is unknown.
https://www.linkandth.ink/p/requisite-inefficiency

2025-03-23 12:00:08 UTC

Times are bad. #LLM s no longer obey the prompts, and everyone is writing on #Substack

2025-03-04 15:28:22 UTC

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https://m.primal.net/PTdv.jpg
#nevent1q…kywh

2025-03-04 15:26:52 UTC

We live in a second-order observer society, which makes the use of aggregated data for both mundane and important decisions the norm, regardless of the lack of trust.
AI is another second-order observer, changing how the society works.
The majority of the AI users are third-order observers, and some are fourth-order observers.
Second and fourth-order observations invite gaming the system.
#AI #LLM #cybernetics
https://www.linkandth.ink/p/ai-enables-fourth-order-observations

2025-03-04 08:37:19 UTC

The Middle Ages are called the Dark Ages.
Yet, there was some accountability and there is none today (see
The Unaccountability Machine by Dan Davies)
And contrary to the popular narrative, there was a lot of innovation.
(BTW, what does the "infinite merchant's ledger" remind you of?
https://m.primal.net/PTLf.png

2025-02-15 17:23:04 UTC

Unary Boundary Logic videos:
Void-based Axioms, 45min https://vimeo.com/1040314440
Postsymbolic Virtual Queries, 21min https://vimeo.com/1040314031
Optimized Deductive Reasoning, 41min https://vimeo.com/1039534775

2025-02-14 17:14:26 UTC

Who am I to argue?
(I mean, seriously, it's your Copilot working inside your tool Powerpoint. How hard can it be? And it's not for the lack of investments or experience)
#microsoft #powerpoint #AI
https://m.primal.net/Ofzm.png

2025-02-11 09:47:00 UTC

Decentralization is about preventing power asymmetries. Power asymmetries tend to find new shapes and forms, which are difficult to detect in the early stages and nearly impossible to change later on. They were latent in Twitter as long as it had benevolent dictators. When that changed, there was and a flow of energy into the decentralized media and decentralized movements. It didn't take long before fragmentation set in. (Bateson would call that phenomenon "schismogenesis," In hashtag#LoF terms, there was a re-entry of the centralization/decentralization distinction decentralization.)
Since decentralized protocols are a direct manifestation of the value of their proponents and builders, they have given new fuel to the ongoing decentralization discourse. So we have extreme decentralists and others supporting hybrid, switching, and other flavors.
However, there are two fundamental problems with the decentralization discourse:
1. Decentralization tends to become a surrogate of the motivation for it and a goal in itself.
2. Decentralization is too neat to absorb the messy social world.
Preventing power asymmetries is a cause worth fighting for. But decentralization is not a good hill to die on. You may not be able to imagine how power asymmetries can be avoided without decentralization, but lack of imagination is not an argument.
Details in my latest article https://www.linkandth.ink/p/beyond-decentralization
#decentralized #protocols

2025-02-03 16:56:14 UTC

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Just realized that the W in 4U test (4U2P and other variants) is how technology appears in the test and this is in line with the autopoietic view of technology proposed by André Reichel (work/fail code, following the principle of the Luhmannian functional differentiation of society)
There will be more that and on the two Ps.
#nevent1q…w57u

2025-02-03 13:14:03 UTC

Next up on Link&Think is a long article on #decentralization (of social media and general).
The main argument builds on four previous essays:
1. https://www.linkandth.ink/p/autonomy-and-cohesion
2. https://www.linkandth.ink/p/cohesion-forces-and-tools
3. https://www.linkandth.ink/p/decoupling
4. https://www.linkandth.ink/p/cohesion-via-standards-and-protocols

2025-02-01 11:29:30 UTC

The X-odus goes on.
We were all very lucky that there were enough mature technologies which, with some push, provided the promised lands.
https://m.primal.net/OLIF.png

2025-01-05 10:27:14 UTC

What's the political spectrum of decentralization movements (Fediverse, crypto, IPFS, Solid)?
An initial suggestion:
- techno-libertarians
- techno-anarchists
- techno-greens
- techno-marxists
Comment and extend.

2025-01-02 15:35:18 UTC

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I use Buffer to schedule posts for Mastodon and Bluesky, and I hope they (or another such service) will add Primal/nostr at some point.

2024-12-03 09:00:15 UTC

Now the full conversation with Luc Hoebeke on representations is out https://www.linkandth.ink/p/conversations-with-luc-hoebeke-series
Check it out, and stay tuned for the next one.
#cybernetics #democracy

2024-10-29 14:43:50 UTC

A recent essay in the #serendipity series
https://www.linkandth.ink/p/random-living-error

2024-10-06 07:27:03 UTC

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Some notes on #serendipity : https://www.linkandth.ink/p/serendipity-protocol-series

2024-08-19 13:49:00 UTC

Here’s a
#serendipity
model that has now stabilized after some iterations, so it’s time to share it. The write-up is coming soon.
https://m.primal.net/KEas.png

2024-08-15 13:05:42 UTC

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Another example: revolutionaries fighting for democracy, when successful, take power without being elected.
That still qualifies as requisite hypocrisy if they call elections (or some other way to exercise democracy) quickly. If not, it's a hypocrisy of a different type.
#note1da3…whka

2024-08-05 13:44:17 UTC

A new essay on Link&Think kicking off a long series on #serendipity
https://www.linkandth.ink/p/serendipity-for-serendipity

2024-07-26 16:25:08 UTC

Resumed working on a serendipity protocol

2024-07-25 13:08:24 UTC

Cohesion is about making a whole or working as a whole. It needs connections. One such connection is between a decision and its consequences. Our civilization has evolved smart ways to decouple those making decisions and performing actions from the consequences.
https://www.linkandth.ink/p/freedom-and-responsibility

2024-06-05 13:52:37 UTC

#RDF is one of those standards that brings both autonomy and cohesion. It does so through standardizing identification, structure and semantics.
https://www.linkandth.ink/p/liberating-cohesion-via-rdf

2024-04-29 07:48:36 UTC

New essay on Link & Think
Cohesion via Standards and Protocols
https://www.linkandth.ink/p/cohesion-via-standards-and-protocols

2024-04-29 07:44:01 UTC

[PDF] Decentralised finance, regulation, and systems theory - https://goo.gl/scholar/Wkv2Ys

2024-03-14 14:18:14 UTC

CABIN is a cohesion spectrum model, distinguishing 5 zones by how cohesion is achieved. Ordered from low to high autonomy, they are:
Coercive, Bureaucratic, Normative, Adaptive, and Interoperable.
Find out more in the latest essay from the Autonomy&Cohesion series.
https://www.linkandth.ink/p/cohesion-spectrum

2024-03-11 11:03:10 UTC

Here's an attempt to explain the Law of Requisite Variety that is:
a) non-technical
b) with manifestations that are easy to observe every day
c) with a wide variety of examples to demonstrate its ubiquity
https://www.linkandth.ink/p/stimuli-and-responses

2024-02-21 12:53:26 UTC

An enterprise-wide transformation can be successful if it brings something that works and is useful. But that's not sufficient. It also needs to be used.
Is that sufficient? Not yet. You need to add two factors related to power.
https://www.linkandth.ink/p/4u2p
#transformation

2024-02-18 21:17:51 UTC

What do meetings, cat photos on social media and talking about the weather have in common?
https://www.linkandth.ink/p/cohesion-forces-and-tools

2024-02-15 10:21:18 UTC

You need a platform to talk against platforms.
https://www.linkandth.ink/p/requisite-hypocrisy

2024-02-15 09:25:57 UTC

What do meetings, cat photos on social media and talking about the weather have in common?
https://www.linkandth.ink/p/cohesion-forces-and-tools

2024-02-05 06:44:30 UTC

"Meme" has stabilized in the last two years. This, of course, doesn't show how memes actually do, as it counts the number of searches, not of transmission.
(the peak is, of course, April 2020)
https://m.primal.net/Hala.png

2024-02-03 12:19:33 UTC

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Do you mean the Zenkit tool by that name?
(I have it here https://www.strategicstructures.com/?p=2591 in the list of PKM tools)

2024-02-03 12:15:39 UTC

I'm starting an experiment with Substack. Most articles will be re-published on my blog launched in 2010. To orient new readers, wrote a guide to the blog content https://www.strategicstructures.com/?page_id=925

2024-02-03 12:10:14 UTC

https://www.linkandth.ink/p/requisite-hypocrisy

2024-01-06 21:46:06 UTC

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What did you use instead so far?

2024-01-06 21:45:36 UTC

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I thought you did that daily. What did you use instead so far?

2024-01-06 21:41:42 UTC

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Yes, I think this was about 10y ago and insight maker wasn't updated since. It just got interesting adding some primitive ABM functionality.

2024-01-03 20:56:19 UTC

"it does not rely on P2P techniques, and therefore it works" is the only statement in the #Nostr README that implies a common and widely accepted fact. I would appreciate any pointer to a serious analysis of the failures of P2P techniques so I can learn. Thanks!

2024-01-03 20:03:07 UTC

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jolla?