Progress
What is the state of things?
Every project management tool asks "what tasks are done?" None of them ask "where is everything right now?" That's why the boss asks "are we on track?" and nobody can answer.
The Origin
Whareroa, New Zealand. Building the world's biggest cheese factory. Thousands of items — valves, pumps, instruments, PLCs, cables, pipes — each at a different stage. The boss keeps asking: "Are we going to make it on time?"
If we didn't, milk went down the drain. When cows start milking, they start. No delays. Hundred-hour weeks. Sleeping on the factory floor — not because there was always something to do, but so the trades and contractors knew I wasn't at home watching TV while they worked through the night.
Through all of it, one thought: how do I give a real answer about progress that isn't full of shit? Every status report was fabricated confidence. Green lights that meant nothing. Percentage complete pulled from thin air.
Then the pattern emerged. Stop counting tasks. Count things. Count them by state. Every thing lives on two parallel tracks that converge when intelligence meets physical reality.
The State Machine
Intelligence track — from the cave to reality. Everyone starts with a picture in their head. Then reality forces the picture through successive collisions with constraints:
| # | State | What Happens |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Idea | The picture in someone's imagination |
| 2 | Drawing | Picture meets paper — first constraint collision |
| 3 | P&ID / Spec | Engineering truth — flows, instruments, control logic |
| 4 | Function Description | What the system must DO, not what it looks like |
| 5 | Working Code | Logic that runs on a controller |
Physical track — atoms moving through space:
| # | State | What Happens |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | Bill of Materials | Everything the idea needs to exist in matter |
| 7 | Ordered | Capital committed — no turning back cheaply |
| 8 | Manufactured | Someone else's factory made your dream real |
| 9 | Delivered to Site | In the store. Accounted for. Not yet useful |
| 10 | Checked Out | Assigned to a location. Has a purpose now |
| 11 | In Situ (Mechanical) | Bolted down. Piped up |
| 12 | Wired (Electrical) | Connected to power and signal |
| 13 | Programmed (Automation) | Intelligence meets physical — the PLC runs the logic |
Convergence — the two tracks become one system:
| # | State | What Happens |
|---|---|---|
| 14 | Tested | Does it do what the spec said? |
| 15 | Commissioned | Signed off. The dream works in reality |
| 16 | Operating | Producing value |
| 17 | Maintained | Kept running — the unglamorous truth |
| 18 | Upgraded | New picture, same tracks |
| 19 | Decommissioned | End of life. Materials return to the pool |
Count the things. Count them by state. The gap between where they are and where they need to be IS the answer to "are we on track?"
Plans vs Things
Every project management tool on the market tracks tasks. None of them track things.
| Plan | Things Table | |
|---|---|---|
| Answers | What do we do next? | Where is everything right now? |
| Unit | Task | Thing |
| Structure | Sequential steps | State machine |
| Progress | Done / not done | Which state, on which track |
| Aggregation | % tasks complete | % things at target state |
| Query | "What's blocking?" | "How many things are still at Idea?" |
A plan says: "Build the auth system." The things table says: "The auth system has 16 features. 10 are at Idea. 4 are Tested. 2 have UI. 0 are Commissioned. Coverage: 38%."
Tasks complete. Things stay at the wrong state. Nobody notices until commissioning. That's why projects fail.
The Things
Every domain has things. Every thing has states. The state machine is universal — only the vocabulary changes.
| Thing | States | How You Know |
|---|---|---|
| Picture | Sketch → Drawing → Spec | Can someone else build from it? |
| Venture | Pain → Experiment → Revenue | $0 ACTUAL = not yet run |
| Feature | L0 Spec → L1 Schema → L2 UI → L3 Tested → L4 Commissioned | Coverage % |
| PRD | Draft → Scored → Registered → Handed Off | 5P score × readiness |
| Skill | L0 Exists → L1 Gated → L2 Connected → L3 Tested → L4 Proven | Receipt count |
| Page | Stub → Draft → Linked → Reviewed | Questions evolved? |
| Principle | Observed → Tested → Proven | Survives pressure |
| Relationship | Contact → Enriched → Verified → Customer → Referrer | Credibility score |
If something isn't on a things table, either it doesn't matter or you haven't named it yet.
Data Trust
The state machine works for valves and features. It works for people too.
The Trust Ladder
Every contact is a thing. Every thing has states. Privacy law isn't the obstacle — it IS the architecture.
| # | State | What Happens | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Public Record | Entity exists in a registry | Registration number |
| 2 | Enriched | Business context from public sources | Industry, size, property |
| 3 | Contacted | Individual opts in | Consent recorded |
| 4 | Verified | Identity confirmed | Verification method + timestamp |
| 5 | Customer | Contractual relationship | Transaction record |
| 6 | Referrer | Introduces contacts who convert | Referral chain + conversion proof |
| 7 | Credible | Keeps commitments over time | Promises kept / promises made |
The Constraint
Data minimization forces quality over volume. Consent forces trust before extraction. Right to erasure forces you to earn continued presence. The constraint doesn't limit the state machine — it shapes it into something better.
| Principle | What You CAN Collect | What You CANNOT |
|---|---|---|
| Public record | Company name, registration, industry | Individual contact details |
| Enriched | Property, filings, public web | Private correspondence |
| Opted in | Name, email, role, preferences | Anything beyond stated purpose |
| Verified | Identity proof, verification status | Share with third parties without consent |
| Customer | Transaction history, service records | Sell or trade to other organizations |
Common Reference
The telco pattern: one master record, many organizational views. Verified once, linked many times. Per-org relationship state, deal history, permissions. The master doesn't duplicate — it delegates.
The Referral Loop
The whole world could be your sales team — if you earn it. The referrer sends the invite — you never touch non-converting prospects. Commission rewards conversion, not invitation. Serve, earn trust, receive referrals, serve more.
Data Trust Playbook — legal frame, scoring model, referral engine, the full architecture.
The DePIN Thesis
The PLC is the blockchain.
The same state machine that commissioned a cheese factory will commission the world's infrastructure. The programmable logic controller is now a smart contract. The site store is a token registry. "Checked out" is an on-chain assignment. "Commissioned" is a verified attestation.
Every DePIN device follows this exact path — idea to operating to decommissioned. The pattern doesn't change. The scale does.
| Whareroa | DePIN | Function |
|---|---|---|
| P&ID | A&ID | What connects to what |
| Function Description | Smart contract | What the system must DO |
| PLC | Blockchain | Programmable logic that enforces rules |
| Site store | Token registry | Where things are accounted for |
| Commissioning signoff | On-chain attestation | Proof the dream works in reality |
| Maintenance log | Oracle feed | Ongoing proof of operation |
A cheese factory has ~10,000 things to commission. A city has millions. The world has billions. The tool that tracks state at cheese-factory scale works at planetary scale — if the state machine runs on-chain.
Documentation as Product
Whareroa taught two things: the value of documentation of process, and the process of documentation. Without it you are completely lost. Nobody likes writing docs — it's hard, you have to think, and it's thankless. But it is crucial.
DHH proved this with Rails. His documentation onboarded developers who would never have touched code. Not by dumbing it down — by making the path visible. That's what a things table does for project management. That's what this site does for starting a business.
The dream: anyone can band together to start what matters. Not "entrepreneurship" — that word conjures pricks with inflated self-opinion chasing billions. Soul businesses. Serve a need. Do it with a smile. Add genuine value to the ecosystem. Be maximally competitive — not through monopoly, but through quality. Best idea, for the right niche, executed best. That's real capitalism.
Not laziness. Not handouts. Not UBI. Meaning and purpose — the gratitude of receiving and the joy of giving. The thought energy thesis says we are receivers, not creators. The business version: receive the signal of what's needed, give the work that fills the gap.
Selling Progress
Progress that stays internal is a journal. Progress that gets expressed is a venture.
The inner loop starts with positive pictures and compounds through habits, planning, and optimism. Progress is where the loop closes — evidence that the propagation is working. Without measurement, virtuous becomes vicious by default.
| Capability | Trains | Without It |
|---|---|---|
| Perception | Optimism — seeing what could go right | Can't find the problem worth solving |
| Expression | Rhetoric — articulating progress so others believe | Progress doesn't compound — nobody follows |
The Five Ps
If you can't picture it, you can't qualify it. If you can't qualify it, you can't quantify it. If you can't quantify it, you're guessing.
| Tight Five | Domain | Question | Without It |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pictures | How you see | What picture are you running? | Building someone else's dream |
| Principles | What you know is true | What truths survive pressure? | Decisions feel random |
| Priorities | Where you focus | What are you stopping? | Activity without outcomes |
| Problem-Solving | How you think | What's the real problem? | Solving the wrong things well |
| Productivity | How you execute | Is the loop compounding? | Busy but not building |
The first three qualify — what does good look like? The last two quantify — are the results proving it? That's the VVFL: Validated Virtuous (qualify) before Feedback Loop (quantify).
The Sagrada Familia started with digging a massive hole. Foundations first, so the towers would stand. Gaudi died in 1926. They're still building from his pictures — a century of builders carrying forward one man's vision, because the picture was clear enough to outlive its creator.
Context
- A&ID Template — P&ID evolved: agents replace PLCs
- Feature Matrix — A things table in markdown, 207 features, 15% coverage
- Ventures — The factory's output: ventures from shared mycelium
- DePIN — Infrastructure commissioned on-chain
- Navigation System — Value, Belief, Control: the three systems progress serves
- Performance — The measurement layer that tells you if progress is real
- Smart Contracts — The PLC that runs on a blockchain
Questions
If every project management tool tracks tasks but none track things, what have we been measuring all along?
- The cheese factory had ~10,000 things across 19 states. What's the minimum viable things table that makes "are we on track?" answerable for a software platform?
- When intelligence track and physical track diverge — the spec says one thing, the installed equipment says another — which track do you trust?
- If the PLC is the blockchain, what's the SCADA system — the oracle network or the block explorer?
- Capital flows to systems that can predict their own performance. Does a things table make a venture more fundable than a Gantt chart?