The Clockless Clock is the longest-running and most ambitious of Rao's serialized projects: a book-length work-in-progress in blogchain format that began in 2020 and continues to the present. It is explicitly framed as the sequel to tempo-book, developing the temporal philosophy of that work into territory that Rao describes as appropriate to the networked, post-clock conditions of the contemporary moment.
The Central Argument
Where Tempo developed a theory of timing and decision-making using clock-time as its basic unit, The Clockless Clock argues that clock-time itself is a historical artifact — a specific coordination technology invented in the industrial era to synchronize factory work and transportation networks — that is now being superseded. The "clockless clock" of the title names the successor condition: a mode of temporal orientation that is not organized by synchronized clock-time but by event-driven, asynchronous, narrative rhythms.
The argument draws on james-c-scott's analysis of how legibility-generating institutions simplify complex realities (clock-time as a legibility technology), on Rao's narrative-driven-decision-making framework from Tempo, and on observations about how internet-native work practices (always-on communication, asynchronous collaboration, global time-zone distribution) have disrupted clock-synchronized industrial rhythms.
Format as Argument
The serialized blogchain format is itself an enactment of the argument. Rather than writing a finished book about post-clock temporality, Rao produces it in a form that resists the clock-synchronized publishing rhythms of conventional books: it appears when it appears, develops at its own pace, and may never be "finished" in the conventional sense. This is Rao at his most McLuhan-influenced — the form of a work is part of its content.
This connects to Rao's broader interest in blogchain as a format distinct from both blog posts and books: long enough to sustain a sustained argument, but open-ended enough to develop in response to events and reader engagement. The format itself is part of what ribbonfarm was exploring during the peak-ribbonfarm era.
Relationship to the cozyweb-turn
The Clockless Clock emerges from the period Rao began thinking about the cozyweb and the retreat from public internet into smaller, more intimate digital spaces. The temporal themes connect: clock-time is public and synchronized; clockless time is personal and asynchronous. The project reflects the same impulse toward interiority and away from the public performance of ideas that characterizes the cozyweb-turn more broadly.
Intellectual Stakes
If tempo-book is Rao's Boyd synthesis, The Clockless Clock is his attempt at a more original philosophical contribution — a theory of time adequate to the present moment. It engages with philosophy of time, with the sociology of temporality, and with the practical experience of navigating a world where industrial time-coordination is breaking down. The ambition is higher than most of Rao's writing; the completion status is accordingly more uncertain.
Alongside unreasonable-sufficiency-of-protocols and the contraptions-newsletter, The Clockless Clock defines the intellectual agenda of Rao's post-ribbonfarm era.