In biology I found it to be mostly the other way around: months were spent trying to figure out what the problem actually was that we were trying to solve, the questions we should be asking, and the various relevant quantities that were needed to be calculated, but once that was accomplished, the actual technical mathematics was relatively

The future of humanity and the long-term sustainability of the planet are inextricably linked to the fate of our cities. Cities are the crucible of civilization, the hubs of innovation, the engines of wealth creation and centers of power, the magnets that attract creative individuals, and the stimulant for ideas, growth, and innovation. But they

The great challenge for companies is how to balance the positive feedback from market forces, which strongly encourage staying with “tried and true” products versus the long-term strategic need to develop new areas and commodities that may be risky and won’t give immediate return.

And what is it about cities that they manage to circumvent this apparently inevitable fate?

less able to respond to significant change.

As they grow companies tend to become more and more unidimensional, driven partially by market forces but also by the inevitable ossification of the top-down administrative and bureaucratic needs perceived as necessary for operating a traditional company in the modern era. Change, adaptation, and reinvention become increasingly difficult to effect,

organisms have evolved to have an enormous range of sizes and an extraordinary diversity of morphologies and interactions, which often reflect increasing complexity, yet fundamental building blocks like cells, mitochondria, capillaries, and even leaves do not appreciably change with body size

This argument shows that only mammals that are large enough for their circulatory systems to support pulsatile waves through at the very least the first couple of branching levels would have evolved, thereby providing a fundamental reason why there is a minimum size.3

And as in biology, basic terminal units, such as faucets and electrical outlets, are not reinvented every time we design a new building regardless of where or how big it is.