Complexity Sunday

Here is a list of links as posted to Twitter for "#Complexity Sunday", January 19, 2014.

Traffic Jam Economics

Complexity Digest - Networking the Complexity Community

Jordan Pollack. "Beyond Competition"

Interview Francis Heylighen

CASR3PM

The Rule of Six - Judy Sorum Brown

Paul Hawken: The Biology of Technology

An intriguing discussion with environmentalist, entrepreneur and author Paul Hawken.

Paul Hawken and Joel Makower

Watch a 70-Year-Old Prefab House Unpacked and Rebuilt Over 48 Hours

This is really quite remarkable. It looks like some parts are new, however, for a structure 70 years old, it is in great condition.

Read the Gizmodo article and watch the video here.

Eight Story Timber Office Building

Case study of an eight story timber office building with precast and prefabricated components. Good article.

Click here for article.

"There is no substitute for profound knowlege." - W. Edwards Deming

I recently read an article at Quality Digest called Profound Knowledge in Complex Systems: A Business Case. The article describes the work of Andrew McKeon who recently keynoted at the W. Edwards Deming Institute and Purdue University's 2013 Annual Fall Conference.  McKeon spoke on the importance of sustainability and "doing the right thing" in business. He defines sustainability in two words: Systems Thinking.  McKeon says “The ultimate system is our planet, and the ultimate aim is survival and continuation of life over the long-term,” He goes further to say Deming’s ideas on understanding systems are necessary to solve today’s problems.

If you have an interest in systems thinking and sustainability, I recommend this article. You can read the article here: Profound Knowledge in Complex Systems: A Business Case

Investing and Complex Adaptive Systems

Here's an interview with Michael Mauboussin, Chairman of the Board of the Santa Fe Institute, an organization which specializes in the multidisciplinary study of complex adaptive systems.

Complex adaptive systems are comprised of heterogeneous agents (e.g., ants in an ant colony, neurons in your brain, investors in a market) which interact leading to "emergence".  Emergence produces a global system with properties and characteristics that cannot be deduced solely by looking at the heterogeneous agents.  As Mr. Mauboussin says, reductionism doesn't work.

In other words, resulting behaviors of these systems are not always what you might expect.

Mauboussin on the Santa Fe Institute and Complex Adaptive Systems

Somthing to think about....

I read a great quote this morning by Hannah Arendt: "Truth carries within itself an element of coercion."