Herb Simon on maintenance
Stewart Brand asks a great question: Did Herbert Simon explore the maintenance of systems? I haven’t found Simon discuss maintenance explicitly. But two related themes are worth highlighting: (1) Simon discusses maintenance through the topic of homeostasis. “For example, Maintenance of a system becomes much simpler if the internal temperature is constant.” Keeping a limited … Continue reading Herb Simon on maintenance
A short description of maintenance
My understanding of maintenance: More: capable to continue to evolve Less: contain at status quo / steady state Related to infrastructure: Keep flexible so can accommodate future changes And don’t forget the personal maintenance it takes to pursue unique ideas or to have sufficient “slack” to emotionally support others The Cybernetics of Maintenance Cybernetics is … Continue reading A short description of maintenance
What can a Building Technologist do about Climate Change?
Title inspired by Bret Victor’s piece “What can a Technologist do about Climate Change?“ Something that has been swirling in my mind lately: personally having a more direct impact on our quest to reduce the causes of climate change. While I’ve been indirectly involved in environmental endeavors for most of my career, I naively thought … Continue reading What can a Building Technologist do about Climate Change?
The kind of problem a building is
Concluding her famous book, Jane Jacobs writes: “Cities happen to be problems in organized complexity.” From sidewalks of access to sidewalks of place, cities deal “simultaneously with a sizable number of factors which are interrelated into an organic whole [1].” My question today: If a city is a problem of organized complexity, then what kind … Continue reading The kind of problem a building is
New ways of distributed work: By the senses
Attention “We rarely attend to what we know.” That’s what urban geographer Yi-Fu Tuan writes in his book Space and Place. It’s a refrain that stays with me. Everywhere I go these days, I see and hear comments and questions on the time and space of flows and how we orient ourselves (and our families) within … Continue reading New ways of distributed work: By the senses
Org Design, Part 1: Nearly decomposable systems, with Serendipity & Slack
PART 1. “Organizations are systems of behavior designed to enable humans to accomplish their goals” –Herb Simon, The Shape of Automation The “buzziness” of 50-100 The period of organizational growth from 50 to 100 people can be a chaotic time. According to physicist Geoffrey West, at this stage [A] the org begins to lose its “buzziness.” … Continue reading Org Design, Part 1: Nearly decomposable systems, with Serendipity & Slack
My 2018 reading list
Books (with sprinkling of articles & podcasts) that have stuck with me throughout 2018 Scale by G West Engineering Systems by O de Weck, D Roos, C Magee Thinking in Systems by D Meadows How Buildings Learnby S Brand Pace Layering article by S Brand Sciences of the Artificial by H Simon Computers and the World of … Continue reading My 2018 reading list
TRIP NOTES: CHINA [Dec 2018]
Rough notes from a weeklong revisit to China: Beijing, Wuhan, Changsha, Kunming. Mix of travel tips and reflection, with summarizing thoughts at end. Written with the understanding that these stories are indicative, not representative. For context: I lived in Wuhan 2009-2010 and Beijing 2010-2014. The highspeed rail makes this journey in ~6 hours CITY-CENTERED THOUGHTS … Continue reading TRIP NOTES: CHINA [Dec 2018]
Tixi 体系
Over dinner with my former colleague ZZ in Changsha, he mentioned something that caught my attention. “You know in China, we have this saying: Tixi jueding suoyou de dongxi. The tixi decides all things.” I had to look up “tixi” (体系) in my Pleco Chinese dictionary first. “System; Setup” Pleco defines. ZZ went on to define his … Continue reading Tixi 体系
How Buildings Learn: Beijing Hutongs (thoughts on the unpublished chapter)
The hutongs north of Beijing’s Forbidden City have always been my favorite part of the city. Narrow alleyways, curving about, full of chaotic day to day life. Or so, that was my experience hearing my mother’s stories from the early 1980s (as a Hong Konger living in Beijing as it opened up), followed by my … Continue reading How Buildings Learn: Beijing Hutongs (thoughts on the unpublished chapter)