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 … More

My 2018 reading list

Books (with sprinkling of articles & podcasts) that have stuck with me throughout 2018 Scale by G West Engineering Systems by … More

Rough notes from a weeklong revisit to China: Beijing, Wuhan, Changsha, Kunming. Mix of travel tips and reflection, with summarizing … More

Over dinner with my former colleague ZZ in Changsha, he mentioned something that caught my attention. “You know in China, … More

The hutongs north of Beijing’s Forbidden City have always been my favorite part of the city. Narrow alleyways, curving about, … More

This year, I’ve been fascinated by Herb Simon. We’re on nickname terms, he and I. There is much that Herb … More

The following is an elaborated transcription from an in-person dialogue on Infrastructure. For a more navigable version of this content, … More

These ideas are a Work in Progress, i.e. in full-on morphing form. If a systems perspective is not part of … More

What concepts from the early days of automation / systems thinking were tossed out because they were not economically / … More

Or: The joys of being a Big Picture Guy As a young engineer, I was persistently frustrated by the antics … More