Tag: Technology and Systems
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The Small Web
The Wrong Problem The architecture of the social internet taught us to mistake attention for relationships. Every era leaves behind a few essays that continue to illuminate the decades that follow. They possess the unusual…
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The Economics of Effort
The Wrong Question Every quarter, investors spend hours listening to the earnings calls of the world’s largest IT services companies. The questions rarely change. Utilisation, billing rates, hiring, offshore leverage, pricing discipline and revenue per…
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The Institutional Individual
Every technological revolution changes the economics of scarcity. Every change in scarcity eventually changes the way we organize ourselves. Over the past few years, several wealth managers and investment advisors have approached me with a…
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IX : Scarcity
Scarcity defines the boundary within which choices take form, because it limits what can be pursued, held, or sustained at any given time, requiring selection where preference alone would otherwise continue without consequence. It becomes…
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VIII : Trust
Interaction begins to move without interruption when actions no longer require continuous verification, as expectations form around how others will behave, allowing coordination to proceed without checking each step. This condition develops when behavior becomes…
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The Invisible System Running Your World
You are living in an electromagnetic world, and you have never actually seen it or understood how it behaves Electromagnetism enables energy and information to move through the world, and Maxwell’s equations describe how it…
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Smart People Build Better Systems. Differently Free People Wake You Up From Them
We are often told to surround ourselves with smart people, and on the surface, that sounds like solid advice. Smart people challenge you, sharpen your thinking, and raise your standards. But there is a structural…
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Intelligence Too Cheap to Meter – Part III
The problem of humanity is not technology but the use of technology ~ Norbert Wiener This essay continues the argument developed in Part I, Intelligence Too Cheap to Meter: Artificial Intelligence and the Rise of…
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Intelligence Too Cheap to Meter – Part II
A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked ~ John Gall This essay continues the argument from Part I, Intelligence Too Cheap to Meter – Artificial…
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VI : Order
Order feels natural when it exists. Streets are navigable, systems function, and routines hold together. Because of this, it is easy to mistake order for something permanent or self-sustaining. In reality, it is produced and…