CDOQ

As the technologies get more complex, it is becoming harder for us to understand how things around us work.

Yesterday, I met the governor of Okinawa, Japan,  The Honorable Denny Tamaki , who is visiting the US to gain support for decreasing the US military presence in Okinawa.  Governor Tamaki, who is half American, has a really hard job. Relocation of the Marine Corps Air Station Futenma has been in works for the last five decades. The Okinawa people don't want the base to be relocated to Henoko Bay within Okinawa for various reasons. The Japanese central government says that the current Okinawa governor has to honor the agreement signed by the previous governor who agreed to the relocation. The US government says that it is an internal Japanse matter and they don't want to interfere. 76% of the Okinawa population expresses opposition to building of a new base in Henoko Bay. What is a governor to do? He is traveling in the US to convince the congressmen and political advisors to gain support for the move of the US Futenma base outside of Okinawa. Maybe to Guam.  ...

Wine is the study of subtlety in soft things. Whiskey is the study of subtlety in hard things. 

The essence of everything is simple. Details give rise to complexity. 

Complexity of execution far outweighs complexity of conceptualization. I find it very amusing that people who teach complexity usually don't know how to execute/apply their complexity theories.

Humans share 99% of DNA with rats. The Syrah grape grown in France compared to the same grape grown in Australia, where it is called Shiraz, has 12% difference in DNA. Wine is one of the most complex things around.

Last week, I attended a workshop on Global Human Potential at Esalen . It was an educating workshop taught by three distinguished people: 1) Ralph Abraham : Chaos theory pioneer and mathematician 2) Mary Catherine Bateson : Cultural anthropologist and Margaret Mead's daughter 3) Jean Houston : Philosopher The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know. Following are a few interesting things I learned during the workshop: The teachers are worried about the cultural crises we are in. Humans are facing multiple crises- Identity, Intimacy, Generative, etc. If we don't take an initiative to change things today, the civilization may end in 150 years. Fractals , which are a fascinating phenomenon in nature i.e. a self repeating pattern which creates a shape that is like the self-repeating part, has a philosophical definition as well. In philosophy, fractal is a boundary between two regions. Humans repeat same patterns over and over and these patterns come to define ...

A year ago, I had talked about evolution of Starbucks on this blog. The main idea was that it would be very difficult for Starbucks to be successful going forward with its centralized control structure. Since then Starbucks stock has gone down ~40% and the CEO, Jim Donald was fired last week and Howard Schultz returned back as the CEO to replace Jim Donald. Although I get some sense of satisfaction that I was able to predict things correctly, it bothers me that most companies still don't understand Complex Systems (go to NECSI to learn more about Complex Systems). To understand Starbucks behavior we must have understanding of the environment (economy, customers, competition, partners, vendors, etc.) Starbucks is operating in and how the environment is influencing Starbucks behavior. And, how the relationship between the parts of Starbucks-customers, employees, management, vendors, stores, technology, etc. gives rise to the collective behavior of Starbucks. Instead of explaining h...

Yesterday, I finished reading Complexity , a book about the emergence of a new science. Following are a few random highlights: A new idea would not be a revolution if everyone believed in it at the start. The crucial skill required to achieve a holistic understanding of any system is the ability to see connections among various parts. Economics is hopelessly intertwined with politics and culture. Neoclassical theory assumes that the economy is entirely dominated by negative feedback: the tendency of small effects to die away. However, Complexity theory suggests that given the right environment, the positive feedback dominates: the tendency of small effects to become magnified. The QWERTY keyboard was designed by Christopher Scholes in 1873 specifically to slow the typists down; the typewriting machines of the day tended to jam if the typist went too fast. The road to the Nobel Prize has generally been through the reductionist approach-dissecting the world into smallest and simplest pie...

I have not written on my blog for three months. Unbelievable! I don't know why my behavior varies with the environment. At work, I am very self disciplined and at home I am very spontaneous and random. Let's see how I can summarize the last three months. Undisciplined for sure:-) I went to following new places: Santa Fe, NM Newport Beach, CA Düsseldorf Cologne Budapest Zagreb, Croatia Crikvenica, Croatia (took a dip in the Adriatic sea) Explored new career opportunities in Europe; gave a speech on why and how carriers should adopt 3G at a 3G Americas conference .; Met with George Cowan at the Santa Fe Institute. Visiting Santa Fe Institute and meeting George Cowan is one the major highlights of my adult life so far. This man is remarkable! He led the research at Los Alamos ( Manhattan project ) and founded SFI and established Complexity as a science. I am beginning to get bored with the daily routine. However, I still get excited when I read about complexity. ...

I just finished reading a book, The Starfish and the Spider . It takes one of the fundamental principles of Complex Systems i.e. a networked organization (all system elements are connected to each other) is better than a hierarchical organization (one person is in charge of the entire organization e.g. CEO) and provides excellent applications of the principle. P2P technology(Peer to Peer)-Skype, Napster, Kazza, etc. has changed the world more than we realize. P2P is what is enabling development and evolution of networked organizations. If you work in the corporate world today, most likely you are working in a hierarchical organization and not utilizing your full potential. Get out and use P2P!