Poko manifesto · 12 October 2026

The intellectual foundations of Poko

Research and source map behind our work

This is a selective map of scholarly foundations drawn principally from the extensive chapter-by-chapter notes in Dave Morris's 2026 Good People Dumb Systems manuscript, the PhD proposal and Poko's internal research documents. It is not a systematic review, proof of an original theory, or a representation that the source articles have been independently re-analysed for this manifesto. The cited sources support specific components of the argument; Poko's integrated framework and future products require their own evaluation.

1. How minds process and decide

Herbert Simon — bounded rationality. A foundational way to think about decision-making with finite information and limited processing.
Simon, H. A. (1955), A behavioral model of rational choice. DOI 10.2307/1884852.

Nelson Cowan — capacity limits. Reconsidering short-term storage capacity and why apparent competence is not infinite active representation.
Cowan, N. (2001), The magical number 4 in short-term memory. DOI 10.1017/S0140525X01003922.

Matthew Botvinick and colleagues — conflict monitoring. Cognitive mechanisms for noticing and handling competing demands.
Botvinick, M. M., et al. (2001), Conflict monitoring and cognitive control. DOI 10.1037/0033-295X.108.3.624.

Amy Arnsten — stress and prefrontal control. One account of how stress signalling can affect neural systems associated with control.
Arnsten, A. F. T. (2009), Stress signalling pathways that impair prefrontal cortex structure and function. DOI 10.1038/nrn2648.

2. How organisations allocate attention and make decisions

William Ocasio — attention-based view of the firm. Organisational structures influence what decision-makers notice and what firms do.
Ocasio, W. (1997), Towards an attention-based view of the firm. DOI: Publisher record.

Daniel Lovallo, Olivier Sibony and Thomas Powell — decision architecture. Behavioural strategy and the process structures surrounding consequential decisions.
Lovallo, D., Sibony, O., & Powell, T. C. (2017), Behavioral strategy and the strategic decision architecture of the firm. DOI 10.1177/0008125617712256.

George Okhuysen and Beth Bechky — coordination. How responsibility, predictability and shared understanding support collective action.
Okhuysen, G. A., & Bechky, B. A. (2009), Coordination in organizations: An integrative perspective. DOI 10.5465/19416520903047533.

Giovanni Gavetti — behavioural strategy. How cognition and mental representations shape strategic search and action.
Gavetti, G. (2012), Toward a behavioral theory of strategy. DOI 10.1287/orsc.1110.0644.

Richard Nelson and Sidney Winter — organisational routines and change. A foundational evolutionary view of firm capabilities, adaptation and persistence.
Nelson, R. R., & Winter, S. G. (1982), An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change. Harvard University Press.

3. Human work, teams and design

Pascale Carayon and colleagues — socio-technical work systems. The SEIPS model joins people, technology, tasks and environment in safety-related work-system design.
Carayon, P., et al. (2006), Work system design for patient safety: the SEIPS model. DOI 10.1136/qshc.2005.015842.

Evangelia Demerouti and colleagues — job demands and resources. One empirical foundation for studying the relation between demands, available resources and burnout.
Demerouti, E., et al. (2001), The job demands–resources model of burnout. DOI 10.1037/0021-9010.86.3.499.

Amy Edmondson — psychological safety. Interpersonal conditions and team learning.
Edmondson, A. (1999), Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. DOI 10.2307/2666999.

Edwin Hutchins — distributed cognition. Reasoning and cognitive work as activities mediated by social, material and technical environments.
Hutchins, E. (1995), Cognition in the Wild. DOI 10.7551/mitpress/1881.001.0001.

Paul Leonardi — human–technology interaction. How technology affordances and organisational routines mutually reshape work.
Leonardi, P. M. (2011), When flexible routines meet flexible technologies. DOI 10.2307/23043493.

4. Slack, resilience and adaptation

Jan Rivkin and Nicolaj Siggelkow — interdependent design choices. Organisational search and stability are affected by complementary structures, not isolated best practices.
Rivkin, J. W., & Siggelkow, N. (2003), Balancing search and stability. DOI 10.1287/mnsc.49.3.290.12740.

Yaneer Bar-Yam — multiscale variety. A complexity-theoretic source for relating the variety a system can express to the demands at different scales.
Bar-Yam, Y. (2004), A mathematical theory of strong emergence using multiscale variety. DOI 10.1002/cplx.20029.

John Pencavel — working hours and productivity. Evidence relevant to non-linear production costs from longer work hours in the studied setting.
Pencavel, J. (2015), The productivity of working hours. DOI 10.1111/ecoj.12166.

Edward Bowman and Dileep Hurry — options. The strategic value of preserving choices and investing incrementally under uncertainty.
Bowman, E. H., & Hurry, D. (1993), Strategy through the option lens. DOI 10.5465/amr.1993.9402210157.

5. Power, public systems and cognitive liberty

Pamela Herd and Donald Moynihan — administrative burden. Learning, compliance and psychological costs imposed on people by institutions.
Herd, P., & Moynihan, D. P. (2018), Administrative Burden: Policymaking by Other Means. DOI 10.7758/9781610448789.

Marcello Ienca and Roberto Andorno — neurorights. The ethical debate around privacy, identity, freedom and emerging neurotechnologies.
Ienca, M., & Andorno, R. (2017), Towards new human rights in the age of neuroscience and neurotechnology. DOI 10.1186/s40504-017-0050-1.

Michael Power — audit culture and risk management. A perspective on how formal controls can themselves impose burdens or create illusions of safety.
Power, M. (2007), Organized Uncertainty: Designing a World of Risk Management. DOI 10.1093/oso/9780199253944.001.0001.

6. Mathematical models to investigate, not declare proved

Busemeyer and Bruza — quantum cognition as mathematical modelling. A non-classical probability framework for certain decision phenomena; it does not establish literal quantum mechanics as the basis of organisational thought.
Busemeyer, J. R., & Bruza, P. D. (2012), Quantum Models of Cognition and Decision. DOI 10.1017/CBO9780511997716.

Gärdenfors — conceptual spaces. A geometric approach to representation and concepts.
Gärdenfors, P. (2000), Conceptual Spaces: The Geometry of Thought. MIT Press.

Kriegeskorte and Kievit — representational geometry. Linking cognition, neural representations and computational models of representational similarity.
Kriegeskorte, N., & Kievit, R. A. (2013), Representational geometry: Integrating cognition, computation, and the brain. DOI 10.1016/j.tics.2013.06.007.

Poko’s own work

Dave’s Good People Dumb Systems manuscript, doctoral proposal, and working papers connect these fields into Poko’s research direction. They are a synthesis and proposed programme of work. The cited scholarship supports particular components; it does not establish Poko’s complete model or the effectiveness of a product.

Weekly Reset evidence register · Poko claims standards · Dave’s public biography