Digital Humans: Thriving in an Online World

8The Power of Small Things

Dripping water hollows out stone, not through force but through persistence.

Ovid (2008)

This chapter is about how to lead change in a digital world. It describes how to have a large impact with a light touch. We introduce a set of ‘small things’ that we have found particularly effective in making large scale change. We explore how to implement this approach in a sustainable way.

From a Single Stone

Go is one of the oldest games still played in the world today, it was invented in Asia and is played in China, Korea, and Japan, Go's enduring popularity possibly derives from the simplicity of its rules. Starting with an empty board, each player takes turns to place a piece (called a stone) on the board. One player has a set of white stones, the other a set of black. It is a game of strategy, with the aim being to dominate the board by surrounding and taking your opponent's pieces. Essentially it is about gaining as much territory as possible. Although the rules are very simple, Go is famous for being one of the most complex games in the world. Shen Kuo, an eleventh-century Chinese scholar, estimated that the number of legal board positions is around 2 × 10¹⁷² (Needham 1986) (he was right – in 2006 it was shown to be actually 2 × 10¹⁷⁰). As a comparison, the number of atoms in the observable universe is estimated to be 10⁸⁰. As Confucius said, people ‘should not waste their time on trivial games – they should study Go’ (Confucius c. 300 BCE/1979