Working Backwards by Colin Bryar and Bill Carr describes in detail the inner workings of Amazon, including the development of … More
Category: Cybernetics
From Comfort to Constraint
We moved our bees this spring. From the grid of an urban environment close to the freeway to a meandering … More
Willing to Learn
Earlier this 2021, Mary Catherine Bateson passed away while surrounded by her family. I never had the chance to meet … More
Embodied & Operational
Cross-posting from buildincentive.com On distinctions and relationships of abstract terms We became parents to a beehive this past March. While … More
Text notes: Architecture of Complexity
A summary of Herbert Simon’s 1962 essay, “The Architecture of Complexity“ INTRODUCTION Useful concepts from Cybernetics: Feedback, Homeostasis, Analyzing “adaptiveness” … More
Climate change: a problem of organized complexity
Problems of organized complexity The case for a simple pattern Concluding her famous ode to cities in 1961, Jane Jacobs … More
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 … More
A short description of maintenance
My understanding of maintenance: More: capable to continue to evolve Less: contain at status quo / steady state Related to … More
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 … More
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 … More