Daniel Colson - History of Princeton

• The Great Context in which what was then the University of New Jersey was formed were great Presbyterians, deeply learned, deeply religious scholars.
• John Witherspoon had never stepped foot in America before he became president of Princeton, because of the coordination of the Presbyterian church. He was the leader of one of the main factions of presbyterians
  • "While he was president, 469 students graduated the college, 114 of these became ministers, 19 of those became presidents or professors of educational institutions. Of the 355 other graduates, one became POTUS, one Vice POTUS, 6 members of continental congress, 20 were senators, 23 were US house representatives, 13 were governors, 3 were supreme court judges, 30 others were notably distinguished."
• There is a lot of social fabric at play that creates opportunities for coordination and creativity.
  • Very different than the "affordance" landscape we're currently in.
• Originally meant as a training school for presbyterian ministers (that was the founding intention), but then evolved as the priorities of the intellectual and moral elite of the country changed
• It seems like a deep underlying desire for the pursuit of excellence for both themselves and for their country ran underneath the founding of the college.

Jean Fan - French Impressionists

• grappling between "communities are so crucial" and "great founder theory"
• Interested in diving into why and how communities fail, and

Luca Rede - Also French Impressionists

• It wasn't actually a formal organization
• All the members saw it as a failure at the end because it didn't succeed in actually creating a single cohesive vision for the future of art
• "The bad apple problem" — Degas was just a giant asshole and was kinda responsible for the group falling apart.
  • He was obstructive and unpleasant toward others, instead of being encouraging and unblocking
• As they became more formalized, it contributed to their dissolution, because the strong personalities with different views ended up clashing with each other
• They would informally paint by day and produce art with each other, but then once they formalized by setting up yearly galleries and gave people "votes", it actually crystallized disagreements in a way that produced clear incompatibilities.
  • Is it possible to "allow the incompatibilities to coexist" by maintaining an informal structure
• "Boundary markers" are really important about who is excluded, and how people get ostracized for breaking norms. The removal and discussion of removals is an important part of group maintenance and norming.