Complex Systems
Complex systems are systems where the collective behavior of their parts entails emergence of properties that can hardly, if not at all, be inferred from properties of the parts.
Jason Badeaux and
Complex Systems
When a complex system is far from equilibrium, small islands of coherence in a sea of chaos have the capacity to shift the entire system to a higher order.
You too will be able to take a subject, any subject, and hype it to the point where it bears no resemblance to reality. Whomever you write about will never be able to live up to what you write about him, but never mind. The important thing is that people will talk about YOUR STORY. They will talk about it for years.
Nora Ephron • Crazy Salad and Scribble Scribble
“leverage points.” These are places within a complex system (a corporation, an economy, a living body, a city, an ecosystem) where a small shift in one thing can produce big changes in everything.
Donella Meadows • Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System
The systems analysis community has a lot of lore about leverage points. Those of us who were trained by the great Jay Forrester at MIT have all absorbed one of his favorite stories. “People know intuitively where leverage points are,” he says. “Time after time I’ve done an analysis of a company, and I’ve figured out a leverage point — in inventory
... See moreDonella Meadows • Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System
Counterintuitive. That’s Forrester’s word to describe complex systems. Leverage points are not intuitive. Or if they are, we intuitively use them backward, systematically worsening whatever problems we are trying to solve
Donella Meadows • Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System
"An investment philosophy on ‘complexity investing’ from NZS Capital"
Investment philosophy on "complexity investing" from NZS Capital, emphasizing the need to embrace extreme events, balance resilience and optionality, and focus on quality, growth, and understanding change in portfolio construction.
static1.squarespace.comNZS Capital poses that the economy and the stock market are best studied as complex adaptive systems akin to biology. They emphasize investing in companies that are adaptable, long-term focused, innovative, possess long-duration growth, and maximize non-zero-sum outcomes. The approach involves fewer, larger positions in companies highly adaptive to disruption, high levels of quality, growth, and context, and smaller positions in companies with a wide range of potential outcomes.
The Theory of Constraints is a good example of how we are surrounded by complicated systems where the optimal strategy, by definition, is always a simple one: in this case, attack the biggest constraint.
Philo • The Midwit Trap
Complexity can be tamed, but it requires considerable effort to do it well. Decreasing the number of buttons and displays is not the solution. The solution is to understand the total system, to design it in a way that allows all the pieces fit nicely together, so that initial learning as well as usage are both optimal. Years ago, Larry Tesler, then... See more