Kicking cans: job descriptions versus culture
A few days ago I watched a schoolboy kicking a can down the road. He kicked it a couple of times and then miskicked, sending… Read More »Kicking cans: job descriptions versus culture
Sustainability and change
Kevin Kelly – what is technology?
Not just shiny new stuff It was clear (at least to me) that technology was an extension of natural life, but in what ways was… Read More »Kevin Kelly – what is technology?
W. Brian Arthur on combinatorial innovation
The idea … that we have is that there’s some genius in an attic… cooking up technology and coming up with inventions. But it started… Read More »W. Brian Arthur on combinatorial innovation
Machine. Ecosystem. (6) – Kevin Kelly on the techium
Okay, so machines are simple, largely linear, and predictable, and systems are complex, adaptive and ‘dispositional’… but look a bit closer and the distinction gets… Read More »Machine. Ecosystem. (6) – Kevin Kelly on the techium
No breakthroughs
The water breaks through because upstream – far enough up that there isn’t any stream – there’s a drip, drip, drip. Enough drips to puddle,… Read More »No breakthroughs
Machine. Ecosystem. (5) – Duncan Green on systems thinking and development
A ‘system’ is an interconnected set of elements coherently organized in a way that achieves something. It is more than the sum of its parts:… Read More »Machine. Ecosystem. (5) – Duncan Green on systems thinking and development
Machine. Ecosystem. (4) – Marc Andreessen on Systems Thinking
Think about it [systems thinking] through the lens of a new tech product, which is kind of the centre of what we do [at Andreesen… Read More »Machine. Ecosystem. (4) – Marc Andreessen on Systems Thinking
Machine. Ecosystem. (3) – Peter Morville
Peter Morville on the unpredictability of complex systems:
Machine. Ecosystem. (2)
Yesterday’s post laid out several reasons benefits of understanding your organisation as a machine.* But many of the important parts of your organisation don’t behave… Read More »Machine. Ecosystem. (2)
Systems: complicated and complex – Aaron Dignan
The engine inside a car is complicated. A complicated system is a causal system – meaning that it is subject to cause and effect. Although… Read More »Systems: complicated and complex – Aaron Dignan