I've been reflecting on this essay and what else I wish I'd said, especially in the conclusion of the article.

One point I think worth mentioning is that the Pencil story itself undermines it's central premise of the world needing corporate behemouths to accomplish complex tasks: the producing of the pencil in his example requires the co-operation of several smaller groups and processes, something which differing exchange rates, competing and fluctuating market values surely all get in the way of.

Which then only leaves the question of incentive. I do address this somewhat, but I could have developed upon this theme by showing the massive accomplishments of pre-capitalist non-hierarchal civilisations such as cities such as Uruk, Çatalhöyük, and Göbekli Tepe, as well as civilizations such as the Mayans, The Minoans, The Iroquois Confederacy, Indus Valley, Pueblos Peoples, and Zomia. Many of them accomplishing great feats of engineering, due to a shared purpose and sense of vision.