By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 24 Nov 21
New uses for sensors are being created all the time; from marinas using them to increase safety by guiding yachts boats into place to taps in the public toilets. Animals are also being used as sensors. There’s a type of bird whose migration pattern can predict when hurricanes will hit months in advance. Estimates based on these birds’ migration patterns are even better than that of meteorologists. As humans we rely on our senses to understand the world around us. We can process a lot of sensory information and integrate it with prior knowledge. Our neuron’s electrochemical impulses travel so …
New uses for sensors are being created all the time; from marinas using them to increase safety by guiding yachts boats into place to taps in the public toilets. Animals are also being used as sensors. There’s a type of bird whose migration pattern can predict when hurricanes will hit months in advance. Estimates based on these birds’ migration patterns …
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 7 Jun 21
I’m going to assume that everyone who frequents this blog and is a regular reader of Dave’s work is very familiar with general concepts of evolution, both as a biological fact and as a metaphor. In the Cynefin framework, evolution appears most prominently in exaptive practice, associated with the complex domain. Exaptation in that context is defined as radical repurposing and it is key to how innovation often happens in complexity. The term exaptation was proposed as an additional process to adaptation by the evolutionary biologist (and a personal favourite) Stephen Jay Gould, most famously outlined in a 1982 essay …
How the elephant got his trunk: what evolution can teach us about complexity Read More »
I’m going to assume that everyone who frequents this blog and is a regular reader of Dave’s work is very familiar with general concepts of evolution, both as a biological fact and as a metaphor. In the Cynefin framework, evolution appears most prominently in exaptive practice, associated with the complex domain. Exaptation in that context is defined as radical repurposing …
How the elephant got his trunk: what evolution can teach us about complexity Read More »
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 7 Jun 21
Anthro complexity I’m going to assume that everyone who frequents this blog and is a regular reader of Dave’s work is very familiar with general concepts of evolution, both as a biological fact and as a metaphor. In the Cynefin framework, evolution appears most prominently in exaptive practice, associated with the complex domain. Exaptation in that context is defined as radical repurposing and it is key to how innovation often happens in complexity. The term exaptation was proposed as an additional process to adaptation by the evolutionary biologist (and a personal favourite) Stephen Jay Gould, most famously outlined in a …
How the elephant got his trunk: what evolution can teach us about complexity Read More »
Anthro complexity I’m going to assume that everyone who frequents this blog and is a regular reader of Dave’s work is very familiar with general concepts of evolution, both as a biological fact and as a metaphor. In the Cynefin framework, evolution appears most prominently in exaptive practice, associated with the complex domain. Exaptation in that context is defined as …
How the elephant got his trunk: what evolution can teach us about complexity Read More »
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 8 Apr 21
After a couple of weeks of hiatus (early spring is definitely Bank Holiday season here in Cyprus), this blog series returns for its final look back at the Acorn Study. To extend the metaphor, it is time to look at the forest floor and examine the new growth. Before we do that, I would like to add a reminder that this study includes a far-from-representative sample and cannot draw conclusions with global applicability. It is fair to say that most of the participants are from what psychology calls WEIRD societies (western, educated, industrialised, rich, and democratic). Still, it is relevant …
Looking back at the Acorn Study; Part 9: Seedlings Read More »
After a couple of weeks of hiatus (early spring is definitely Bank Holiday season here in Cyprus), this blog series returns for its final look back at the Acorn Study. To extend the metaphor, it is time to look at the forest floor and examine the new growth. Before we do that, I would like to add a reminder that …
Looking back at the Acorn Study; Part 9: Seedlings Read More »
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 29 Mar 21
I first used the illustration to the left last November when I was updating the whole Flexuous Curves Framework (FCF). I don’t intend to repeat the material of that earlier post or to be completely consistent with it, but I recommend a quick skim before proceeding. This used to be known as the Apex Predator Curve but I realised that the Apex idea was just one aspect of a wider re-wilding idea; where I have yet to write part 2 of my initial post last January. This wider concept needs a different name. It is not finally settled yet, but …
I first used the illustration to the left last November when I was updating the whole Flexuous Curves Framework (FCF). I don’t intend to repeat the material of that earlier post or to be completely consistent with it, but I recommend a quick skim before proceeding. This used to be known as the Apex Predator Curve but I realised that …
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 18 Mar 21
Picking up right where we left things, let’s dive straight into more of the patterns. It is a commonly-accepted stereotype that those of us with access to social media distractions spent most of the pandemic doomscrolling. There might be an element of truth to that (I know that I downloaded two new social media platforms within the last year). Still, when it came to knowledge or awareness, we see that media, social or traditional, was not the primary source in participants’ stories. Instead, there has been movement towards the central space of combining multiple sources of knowledge and tempering what …
Looking back at the Acorn Study; Part 8.2: And then COVID happened Read More »
Picking up right where we left things, let’s dive straight into more of the patterns. It is a commonly-accepted stereotype that those of us with access to social media distractions spent most of the pandemic doomscrolling. There might be an element of truth to that (I know that I downloaded two new social media platforms within the last year). Still, …
Looking back at the Acorn Study; Part 8.2: And then COVID happened Read More »
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 11 Mar 21
The Acorn Study began in the autumn of 2019. As often happens, most stories were collected in its early days in the flurry of sharing that followed its release. As the initial flood stopped, stories kept coming in, slowly but steadily, until the collection was closed down at the end of 2020. In between those two dates, something changed. The theoretical possibility of a pandemic arriving sooner or later became a reality. Even though COVID-19 wasn’t the Black Death in terms of mortality, it was more than enough to shut many of us in our homes, make more of us …
Looking back at the Acorn Study; Part 8.1: And then COVID happened Read More »
The Acorn Study began in the autumn of 2019. As often happens, most stories were collected in its early days in the flurry of sharing that followed its release. As the initial flood stopped, stories kept coming in, slowly but steadily, until the collection was closed down at the end of 2020. In between those two dates, something changed. The …
Looking back at the Acorn Study; Part 8.1: And then COVID happened Read More »
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 4 Mar 21
In 2018, Jem Bendell, a sustainability leadership professor, wrote a paper that took the possibility of near-term societal collapse due to climate change extremely seriously (you can read the whole thing here). I would like to spend a little bit of time on this paper because it was the theoretical basis for one of the multiple-choice questions (and, therefore, analysis filters) that participants confronted in the Acorn Study. The paper set out four key aspects of what the author calls the Deep Adaptation agenda: resilience, relinquishment, restoration, and reconciliation. One of the paper’s critical discussions and preoccupations is discussing the serious …
Looking back at the Acorn Study; Part 7: Hope, loss, and sacrifice Read More »
In 2018, Jem Bendell, a sustainability leadership professor, wrote a paper that took the possibility of near-term societal collapse due to climate change extremely seriously (you can read the whole thing here). I would like to spend a little bit of time on this paper because it was the theoretical basis for one of the multiple-choice questions (and, therefore, analysis filters) …
Looking back at the Acorn Study; Part 7: Hope, loss, and sacrifice Read More »
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 25 Feb 21
As always, let’s start with one of the high-level patterns in our collection: the sources of knowledge or awareness in the actions or stories shared. The largest cluster of stories is at the top of the triad, showing that in most stories, knowledge came from social or mass media, with a secondary group at the centre of the triad, indicating a combination of all three sources of knowledge. There is a scatter of stories all over the rest of the triad. Notably, there are fewer indications that experts are a principal or primary source of information and awareness in stories. …
As always, let’s start with one of the high-level patterns in our collection: the sources of knowledge or awareness in the actions or stories shared. The largest cluster of stories is at the top of the triad, showing that in most stories, knowledge came from social or mass media, with a secondary group at the centre of the triad, indicating …
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 18 Feb 21
This week we are looking at the dimension of time. Time is a central concept in all kinds of contexts, and it is an anchor that is often used when people interpret their stories. The core ideas of past, present, and future can take on different labels and nuances depending on the specific nature and context of a collection, and they do just that here as well. Moreover, by positioning the story in relationship with all three of these we subvert a little bit the linear approach to time, at the same time as using it as a heuristic (a …
Looking back at the Acorn Study; Part 5: Looking backwards, looking forwards Read More »
This week we are looking at the dimension of time. Time is a central concept in all kinds of contexts, and it is an anchor that is often used when people interpret their stories. The core ideas of past, present, and future can take on different labels and nuances depending on the specific nature and context of a collection, and …
Looking back at the Acorn Study; Part 5: Looking backwards, looking forwards Read More »
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