This is where finished research lives—books, papers, essays that have crystallized from investigation into stable form. Not "final" in the sense that knowledge is ever complete, but polished enough to stand on their own.
Everything here is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Take it, use it, build on it, share what you create.
The premise: Organizations make decisions based on business models they've never explicitly examined. They chase ROI metrics without questioning whether they're measuring what matters. They fly blind through terrain they think they know.
What it maps: Ten systematic blind spots—mismatches between how organizations think they work and how they actually work. Revenue model assumptions that don't match reality. Cost structures nobody's questioned. Customer value propositions that exist in PowerPoint but not in practice. The gaps between organizational story and organizational behavior. It's not prescriptive. It won't tell you what to do. But it might help you see patterns you've been navigating unconsciously.
What it's not: A prescription. A how-to manual. A framework to implement by Friday. This isn't "7 Steps to Fix Your Business Model."
What it is: A diagnostic lens. A way of seeing organizational dynamics that most people can't see because they're embedded in them. Cartography, not navigation.
For whom: Leaders, middle managers, consultants who suspect their organization is stuck in invisible assumptions. People who've sensed something's off but couldn't name what.
How to use it: Read it to see if this way of seeing helps you read your own terrain. The blind spots are structural patterns—they appear across industries, organization sizes, sectors. See which ones show up in your context. Then decide what to do about them (or whether to do anything at all).
The writing approach: Each chapter examines one blind spot through real examples (anonymized), showing how the mismatch plays out and why it persists. No prescriptive solutions—just detailed mapping of territory most business books skip over.
Sample chapter: [Blind Spot #3: The Customer Value Mismatch] (link to excerpt)
Note on the Library page: I'll add a note that the PDF is free download, hardcover available for production costs.
Where to get it: Right here, the PDF is free, the hard copy is $24
Reviews:
"Finally, someone writing about organizations as they actually function rather than how they're supposed to function."
"Not comfortable reading—Hay doesn't let you off the hook—but essential if you're serious about seeing your organization clearly."
Related research: The blind spots framework connects to governance at scale (organizational dynamics as field phenomena) and applied governance (middle management as peripheral practice). See [Field Notes on organizational cartography] for ongoing investigations building on this work.
Status: In progress
Focus: Testing whether Hay's aesthetic proportions appear in atomic structure, planetary mechanics, and chemical bonding with statistical significance
Current findings: Preliminary validation across multiple domains—full paper forthcoming
Preview: [Field Notes series on Hay validation]
Status: Draft complete, under revision
Focus: Why the same flattened spheroid geometry appears in atomic orbitals, planetary systems, and biological forms
Core argument: This specific geometry represents stable mathematical solution to maintaining coherent structure under variable forces
Preview: [Research thread: Mathematics of Equilibrium]
Status: Early investigation
Focus: Can starling field coordination illuminate how organizations actually function vs. how org charts say they function?
Approach: Mathematical modeling of local rules creating emergent coordination, applied to organizational communication patterns
Preview: [Field Notes on murmuration theory]
Status: Ongoing analysis
Focus: Mapping the periodic table against pure harmonic ratios to test Russell's claim that atomic structure follows musical intervals
Findings so far: Significant correlation—alloy formation up to Perfect Fifth, ionic compounds at Octave
Preview [Russell-Partch mapping series]
As research crystallizes into insights worth sharing in essay form, they'll appear here. Currently, most writing exists as Field Notes (works in progress). When pieces reach stable form, they migrate to this section.
Coming:
The Art of Being Governed, Just Enough: Synthesizing Scott's peripheral peoples, organizational dynamics, and personal autonomy protocols
Middle Management as Peripheral Practice: The craft of maintaining equilibrium between upward demands and downward loyalty
The Craftsman's Stance: Why viewing impossible roles as material to work with changes everything
Ideas in development, not yet published:
Book project: Strategic Cartography—collecting organizational mapping methods into comprehensive guide for reading institutional terrain
Synthesis: Pulling together 800+ AI research conversations into thematic collections (governance across scales, harmonic mathematics, applied protocols)
Teaching materials: If the research proves useful to others, developing frameworks for learning to read organizational and personal terrain consciously
You can add more detail in this subtitle
These aren't products for sale (though Flying Blind has a purchase price to cover production costs). They're research artifacts available for use. A library is a shared resource—you take what's useful, return it better understood, and others benefit from the collection.
The CC BY-SA 4.0 license ensures this stays true. Knowledge advances through sharing, not hoarding.
If these maps help you navigate your terrain, use them. If you improve them, share the improvements. That's how cartography progresses—each generation refines the maps for the next.
Browse Field Notes for works in progress →
Explore Research Threads for thematic investigations →
See About for methodology and researcher background →