By day, I serve as Chief Digital Information Officer at REMAX, guiding the company’s global AI, data, and digital platform strategy. I’ve also just finished writing the biography for the legendary New England jam band Max Creek. Those two things might seem unrelated.

They’re not.Long before “agile,” “decentralization,” or “community-led growth” became gratuitous corporate jargon, creative communities were already living it—figuring out how to adapt, endure, and most importantly, be human.