Frugal solutions – Our brief new pamphlet

At the Universe Foundation we've just published a short, easy to read pamphlet which describes why we see a need for companies to develop more "frugal solutions".

It also features  a toolbox of methods that companies may consider if they want to try lowering prices without comprising the utility for end-users. 

You can download it here.

Obviously, there’s an extensive website as well.

In English - and in Danish

Counterfeit paradises - amazing photo book from China

 

Matthew Niederhauser is a photographer living in China with a keen eye for the absurdity of the ways Chinese developers create completely artificial town as replicas of German villages, French chateaus or Venetian canals. You can see a large collection in his online book, Counterfeit paradises. Very funny, very weird - a bit hard to comprehend, actually.The pdf is rather large, so it takes a while to load. It's worth the wait. 

Foxconn's robots are late

Interesting update on the situation around Foxconn’s plans to deploy massive numbers of robots in their immense factories in China – the ones that, among other, produce phones and computers for Apple.

Several details I wasn’t aware of:

- Foxconn is losing money, $US 316 mio. last year

- Foxcon build their own robots – they call them Foxbots. They started constructing the robots with the help of MIT back in 2009. So far they have only made 20.000, but the plans are to build a million.

- Unusually, there is currently a freeze in hiring at Foxconn, or at least thay was the situation back in february, after the new year holiday.

Basic tricks for computer use that you ought to know

New Times tech columnist David Pogue delivers real value for your time in this 6 minute TED presentation of 10 basic trick for easier everyday use of you computer, phone and camera.
Like: don't use your mouse to scoll on a webpage, use the spacebar to go down a screen - or shift space bar to go back up again.
Or: Press ctrl + to magnify the size of text on a webpage. ctrl - to back in size again. (it's the cmd-key on Macs)
useful stuff.

The core of e-learning

E-learning, flipping the classroom, blended learning... it's been exploding recently.
Here are links to three podcast with some central actors in the field:

A presentation by Salman Khan at the London School of Economics

A presentation by Sebastian Thrun from Udacity for the Commonwealth club of California on april 17. 2013

And finally, some interesting critical observations from Nicholas Negroponte, ex-head of MIT Medialab, speaking for the Long Now Foundation. He argues that videoinstructions and online tests are disastrous for learning. He calls it instructionalism. Instead he reminds of the virtues of constructivism; learning by doing and making, and the combination and the combination of theory and practice.
His remarks are concentrated 44 minutes into the programme.

Saving all open word documents at once

Ah, I finally found this function: If you have a bunch of word documents open on your screen and want to make sure they are all saved, you can save them all in one go by pressing "shift", and then choosing the "save all" function which will now appear in your "file" menu. Works for both windows and Mac. Wonderful!
It's explained in detail here.

Chinese phrases for key cultural concepts

Here are some Chinese phrases that anyone dealing with China might find useful to know: 

Fendou - 奋斗 

Struggle, hard work. There’s a strong belief that hard work and plain living is the way to build up a person – and a country, as well. Fendou is the drive that allows China to catch up

Renao - 热闹

Lively, hot, noisy. Whereas Danes typically prefer a quiet, orderly setting, Chinese often like to go where everyone else is mingling, talking, eating.

Mianzi - 面对

Face. Showing a big face, protecting face is very important. Nice clothes, a big car, an impressive façade on the house, paying the bills at restaurants – even if you can’t really afford it.

Shanzhai - 山寨

Literally: The bandit’s nest. Refers to pirated copies and low quality semi-legal products. Shanzhai companies are used to working fast, delivering what customers want, really cheap and with whatever means it takes.

Hexie, 和谐

Harmony. A very important concept in later years. Chinese leaders have emphasized the wish to develop a harmonius society, with comfortable, stable and fair relationships. Family and teams in companies should also be in harmony.

Shuang - 爽

If something is just great, feels wonderful, clear, bright and satisfying, the Chinese will call it Shuang, in an affectionate voice.

Jia You-  加油

Literally means: Add gas. Usually a shout to encourage someone to work harder: Go! Commonly used at sporting events, or to ask employees to speed up.

When the copy comes before the original

Here's a great little story about copying in China:
Zahia Hadid, one of the world's leading architects, has drawn the very distinct Wangjing SOHO complex, which is currently under construction in Beijing. However, it seems that someone has gotten hold of the drawings and used them as a very direct inspiration for a similar complex, which is under construction in Chongqing. Apart from illustrating that anything is subject to copying in China, there's a delicious twist to the story, because apparently the building in Chongqing will be completed before the one in Beijing. So the copy will precede the original.
You can read the full story in this article from Der Spiegel.

Watch Google making associations

This is mesmerizing. It's like seeing how Google's image search makes associations to find pictures that look like eachother. By following the variations the artist, Dina Kelberman, makes this great and When You've surprising trail of random images.

 

Afterwards, have a look at this piece, also by Dina Kelberman, and similar in approach: All kinds of little animations from the web with smoke and fire.

On the internet we're carving out meaning, not assembling it

How does the Internet change the way you think? was John Brockman's question for the members of philosophical society of science writers at Edge.org. 
I just read through most of the 150 replies, and one in particular stands out for it's poetic way of expressing a core concept very briefly. The essay by George Dyson titled "Kayaks vs. Canoes". 
 I'm taking the liberty of quoting here in full. 

But you can see it among all the other responses at the Annual Question site: 

Here's George Dyson: 

 

In the North Pacific ocean, there were two approaches to boatbuilding. The Aleuts (and their kayak-building relatives) lived on barren, treeless islands and built their vessels by piecing together skeletal frameworks from fragments of beach-combed wood. The Tlingit (and their dugout canoe-building relatives) built their vessels by selecting entire trees out of the rainforest and removing wood until there was nothing left but a canoe.
The Aleut and the Tlingit achieved similar results — maximum boat / minimum material— by opposite means. The flood of information unleashed by the Internet has produced a similar cultural split. We used to be kayak builders, collecting all available fragments of information to assemble the framework that kept us afloat. Now, we have to learn to become dugout-canoe builders, discarding unneccessary information to reveal the shape of knowledge hidden within.
I was a hardened kayak builder, trained to collect every available stick. I resent having to learn the new skills. But those who don't will be left paddling logs, not canoes.

For 9 kr. reklamer pr. dansker om dagen

Jeg fik nogle interessante tal fra Danmarks statistik forleden:

Omsætningen af reklamer er faldet markant igennem de sidste 5 år, men selve salget af plads i både trykte medier, radio, TV og internet er steget.

I stedet er det alle andre dele af branchen der er skrumpet, inklusive rådgivning, design og konceptudvikling. Man kunne fristes til at konkludere, at der er flere reklamer, men der bruges færre penge på at producere dem.

Omsætningen svarer i øvrigt til 3225 pr. dansker om året - knap 9 kr. om dagen. 

Al Gore's nye bog, The Future: 6 hovedpunkter

I min anmeldelse af Al Gore's nye bog iPolitiken forleden havde jeg skrevet en sammenfatning af bogens hovedpunkter, der ikke kom med i avisen. 

De kommer her i stedet:

Al Gore beskriver i The Future de 6 overordnede drivkræfter, som efter hans mening tilsammen definerer vores fremtid.

Earth inc.

Verdens rigdomme koncentreres i takt med at globaliseringen skaber selskaber af hidtil uset størrelse og magt. Industriarbejdspladserne forsvinder, de outsources til billiglande eller overtages af robotter. En stor del af væksten er rent pengemæssig, den skaber ingen jobs og er ikke til gavn for de fleste. Resultatet er en foruroligende udhuling af samfundet, hvor nogle få bruger løs, og millioner kæmper for at overleve. Kapitalismen er den mest effektive måde at skabe fremgang og udvikling, mener Gore, men når kapitalen får frit spil, overtager vinderne alt.

Magten er lammet og uafklaret

Demokratiet er i dyb krise. Systemet er blevet hacket af gigantiske corporations, der med klækkelige penge bidrag og massiv lobbyisme reelt kan styre, hvad politikerne vedtager eller afviser. Gore kalder det ”blød bestikkelse” og ”et statskup i slow-motion”. Resultatet er at der ikke længere er nogen ledelse – nationalt eller globalt. Politik er lammet, på et tidspunkt, der i dén grad kræver styring.

Den globale hjerne

Digitalisering og smamenbinding af alt og alle. Privatlivet forsvinder, alle normale medier og jobs udfordres, kunstig intelligens, der vokser sig stærkere, en fælles bevidsthed, nervøst sitrende.

Det er her håbet findes, mener Gore: De kommende års vigtigste kamp er når den globale bevidsthed går imod Earth inc. blinde vækstkurs, og i stedet lader fornuften og sandheden råde.

For meget af væksten

Mennesket breder sig og vokser langt mere end kloden kan bære. Befolkningen vil vokse med nye milliarder, og alle knokler vi for at få mere: Kød, transport, bekvemmelighed. Væksten holdes oppe af målrettet politik og solide doser reklamer. Imens forsvinder naturgrundlaget under os med foruroligende hast.

Gen-opfindelsen af liv og død

Bioteknologien vil give mennesker indflydelse på naturen på et langt mere dybtgående og detaljeret niveau: Gensplejsede afgrøder bliver det nye normale, vi vil kunne dyrke organer, udvælge børn med attraktive gener og forlænge levetiden radikalt. Men teknologien kan også bruges til terror – eller bare uden forståelse for konsekvenserne.

På kanten

Der er der desværre ikke gode nyheder om klimaet. Vi går imod de værst tænkelige udfald, og vi er nødt til at forholde os til truslen nu, siger Gore. Vi får snart rigeligt at gøre med at tilpasse os til store forandringer og udfordringer, men samtidig er vi nødt til at få stoppet årsagen til katastrofen. Der skal sættes pris på CO2, i form af skatter, skatteregulativer og handelskvoter. Al Gore håber på teknologiske fremskridt og at vi kan skabe den samme hastige udvikling af bæredygtig energi, som vi har set indenfor computere og bioteknologi.

Bang & Olufsen's $ 32.500 loudspeakers for China

Red and Gold are auspicious colors in China, and so is the number 88. So here are Bang&Olufsen's 88th anniversary special edition loudspeakers  - as seen in a fancy Hong Kong magazine. 
Price: 243.000 HK dollars - US$ 31.500 - 182.000 Danish Kroner 

Al Gore discusses "The Future" in Science Friday

Al Gore's recent book "The Future" is a very good diagnosis of the challenges humanity faces, and the reasons why we seem incapable of moving anywhere on the issues - due to the extreme concentration of wealth among a very small elite that has managed to take over politics because politicians depend so badly on their contributions to get elected.
Gore reminds me of Kassandra, the mythological Greek figure, who was given the ability to look into the future - but was cursed that noone would believe her. Gore has done more than just about anyone else to tell the world of the challenges ahead - but noone seems to listen close enough to act.
"The future" is a good book - I reviewed it (in Danish ) for Politiken - but it is very heavy on facts.
An easier introduction to the themes is listening to this really good interview on NPRs Science Friday with Al Gore.

Makers - the book explained in an hour

Yet another great podcast of a seminar from the Long Now Foundation: Chris Anderson, former editor of Wired magazine, speaking about his latest book, Makers - the new industrial revolution, which describes how 3d printers and networked collaboration changes industry.
The book is excellent, if a bit breathless, but even if you've read it, Anderson's presentation is a good way to recap the main points.

An evening with Tom Wolfe - podcast

Wonderful one hour and twenty minutes in the company of my old hero of new journalism Tom Wolfe. He's being interviewed for one of the many great events in the ALOUD series from the Los Angeles Public Library.
The event starts out with a magnificent reading of some highlights of his writing, from the early sixties to today.
And one thing I particularly like is that Wofe is obviously an old person now - but he is absolutely sharp. It's great when you build up experience, but don't lose the ability to convey and use it.

Jugaad and frugal innovation article in Innovation Management

Our report on Jugaad innovation in India along with a general description of the Universe Foundations project on Frugal Solutions are featured in a long article in Innovation Management.

Jugaad - frugal innovation in India

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"Jugaad – frugal innovation in India" is a brand new report describing the methods and the mindset which companies and organizations in India use to create low cost solutions under very scarce circumstances. 

It's based on my recent trip around India. 

The report argues that some of these methods could well be transferred and used by Western companies.

There are many indications that the market will demand lower priced solutions, and for Western designer and engineers, the Indian approach could be an inspiration and a challenge to our usual way of developing new products.

The report is available in English and Danish.

India: So run down - so beautiful

This is normal

Robo-jugaad

Should you need to have your robot repaired while in India, it's nice to know that there is a shop in Pune, that will do it for you, cheap and while you wait. No need to use those fancy high priced Japanese service labs.

5 (very rich) persons living in a 27 story skyscraper - in Mumbai

 

India never ceases to surprise. It’s just so weird sometimes. Now this: In Mumbai, which is not exactly Monaco, the owner of one of India's largest Industry conglomerates Reliance, has built a home for his family of 5 persons. It has 27 floors and is supposed to have cost a billion dollars to build. Vanity Fair has photos of the inside – looks more like a hotel than a home to me. Certainly, it's quite a contrast to the rather hardcore slums in other parts of the city. 
When I passed it the other night, it didn’t look like anyone was home.
You stare and wonder.

Trains of Mumbai

The trains in Mumbai are filled beyond the brim. I'm surprised by the calm that these guys radiate, despite hanging on the edge of the door.

Ugly dog in ugly underwear

I collect photos of ugly dogs. There are some amazingly ugly, infested, worn out, and just weird specimens out there. Just met this one on a crowded street in Mumbai.
How did this come about, I wonder?

The conspicuous ecologist

Here it is, at last: our new 3,5 KW PV panel. Let the sun shine!

Audio interview with Michiel Schwarz, co-author of Sustainism

I reviewed Michiel Schwarz and Joost Elffers book "Sustainism is the new modernism" for the Danish newspaper Politiken. The review is in Danish, but I also did a telephone interview with Michiel Schwarz in which he talks about some of ideas behind the book, and why they chose to coin a new word – sustainism – and design new icons in order to describe the characteristics of the future.

The interview lasts 14 minutes.

E.O Wilson - interview

Oh, I should put this up: I did an interview with biologisk E.O Wilson about his most recent - and excellent - book The Social conquest of Earth.
You can hear it here, at Danish newspaper Politikens website. 

I did the interview in conjunction with my review of his book. If you can read Danish, you can read it here. 

Ord, der trænger til en opstramning

Det er forbløffende, hvordan mange af de helt centrale ord, der definerer vores kultur har meget forskellig betydning, alt efter hvem man er.

Vi bruger ord som vækst, kvalitet, fællesskab, demokrati og kreativitet til at beskrive, hvordan vi ser verden hænge sammen, men det, vi forstår ved begreberne, kan være vidt forskelligt.

Resultatet er en kommunikation, hvor vi kan sige og høre de samme ord, selvom vi hver især mener noget forskelligt.

Faktisk kan betydningerne af nogle ord – vækst, eksempelvis - være direkte modsatte. Resultatet er at man kan anstrenge sig for at realisere én opfattelse af vækst, samtidig med at man forringer mulighederne for at opnå det, andre forstår som vækst.

Når et ord bliver udvandet eller det får en ny betydning, indebærer det, at det oprindelige begreb, som ordet beskrev, bliver vanskeligt at tale om.

Der er grundlæggende ord i vores kultur, som har fået så forskellige og brede anvendelser, at de ikke længere er præcise nok til at handle efter.

Der er ord for centrale ideer, der historisk har fået en bagage af associationer, som gør, at ordet i sig selv afskrækker mange fra at overveje det bagvedliggende begreb.

Endelig er der ideer, forhold og mekanismer der først netop er opstået, ellers som vil præge verden fremover, men som endnu ikke har fået et alment kendt ord, der gør det muligt for de fleste at diskutere og tænke på det.

Uden mere præcise forståelser af de ord, vi bruger, risikerer vi at forværre de problemer, vi vil løse. Uden de rette ord, kan vi ikke beskrive vores visioner.

Ved at diskutere ordene, giver vi dem mening og får selv mening. Vi skaber redskaber til at skabe forandring.

Hvad mener vi egentlig med….?

- Kreativitet

- Fællesskab

- Demokrati

Utilstrækkeligt i forhold til realiteterne og tidens problemer

- Forbrug

Forbruger, mindset og rolle, i modsætning til borger

Deltagelse, openness, sharing

- Frihed

Til hvad, for hvem

- Ansvar

Påtage sig ansvar, ansvarlig, i modsætning til u-ansvarlig

- Integration

Forpligtelse, Interdependence, indbyrdes afhængighed, connectivity

- Vækst

Udvikling, produktivitet, velstand, effektivitet

- Kvalitet

Nytte

- Lighed

Polarisering, mangfoldighed

Wrap

A few snapshots from wonderful Iceland

Bill Clinton: interdependence means you can't get a divorce

Bill Clinton recently participated in one of London School of Economics public lectures - talking about the activities of his global initiative fund. Like all of the amazing LSE events, you can listen to it as a podcast.

During the Q&A (41 min. into the recording) he talks about some very fundamental political issues: 

"...The world has become completely interdependent, but we can’t make up our minds what that interdependence is going to look like. Interdependence simply means you can’t get a divorce. That’s all it means: that you can’t get away from each other. But it might be positive, it might be negative, it might be both. To pretend that the United States and China are not going to share the future is nuts. Or the US and India, or Europe and... You pick, fill in the blanks. So the world now is awash in a kaleidoscope of questions that all come down to this: are we going to share the future – or try to take it away from someone else?

Will we adopt a conflict model or a cooperation model to resolve our differences and to meet our own objectives? And I basically believe - in a world where growth and opportunity, and even basic humanity is drastically constrained by severe in-equality and the un-availability of jobs that pay an affordable living, by instability that is brought on not only by the aftermath of terror but by the financial crisis and by a totally unsustainable use or resources that causes climate change and local resource depletion - the only thing that makes sense is to try to develop a path to a shared future, where you have shared responsibilities and shared prosperity, and where people respect their differences, but think that their common humanity matters more. No other strategy will work."

There is only one Watson - and Siri is its prophet

There is only one traffic and Google is driving it.
The Cloud is everywhere, in everything.

The fascinating story of plastic - for better or worse

Another great talk from the Long Now Foundation's series of seminars on longterm thinking:
Susan Freinkel, a journalist, presents the story of plastic. Fascinating, informative, and ultimately disturbing, Freinkel tells how quickly this material has conquered the earth. When Titanic sunk, no part of it was plastic. Today, most of us would be very seriously challenged to get by even a few minutes without using something made of plastic. It's everywhere, and unfortunately it ends up accumulating in nature, in oceans and landfills, where it breaks down only very slowly.
If you have an hour or so for listening, this podcast will fill you in on the state of plastic.

China: Getting old before they get rich

Getting old before they get rich, is a sentence that’s popping up a lot about China. If you want a quick overview of just how dramatic and fast the ageing of the Chinese population is, this article in the Economist, ”China’s Achilles heel” is a good place to start.

Among the facts are:

Shanghai is believed to have the lowest fertility rate in the world, just 0,6 in 2010 – way below the 2,1 rate which is necessary to keep the population number stable.

A fast rise in lifetime combined with rapid urbanization and the one-child policy means, that the number of old people is growing, and the number of young is dropping much faster than in the west. By 2020 it is expected that a third of Shanghais population will be over 60 years old.

The 4-2-1 families of four grandparents, a couple and their only child has become the norm, and obviously this will become a considerable burden on the lone child soon.

China is not prepared.  The systems of pensions and healthcare cover only a fraction of the population. Just adapting the physical infrastructure to accommodate elderly is a huge task. 

How this plays out at the personal level is well illustrated by this BBC program”Assignment: Too old to get rich” – which portrays how elderly in Shanghai get by. Some are faced with climbing the stairs to the 8th floor because there is no elevator; some are ashamed because their spouse is becoming demented in a culture that often sees dementia as a form of mental illness. Others join the crowds of elderly in IKEAs cafeteria, sipping coffee and hoping to meet a companion.

One obvious conclusion: there is vast potential for Danish companies to deliver expertise on how to support an ageing society. But the solutions need to be really cheap.

Socializing kids to see themselves as co-creators

Entrepreneurial spirit is not a Danish characteristic. Our culture tends toward the less risky, less offensive approach to life. Much has been said about the need to make our educational system instill a more entrepreneurial culture, and train kids to see starting a business as a real possibility. The discussion often includes the need for leadership.

In typical Danish fashion I would like to suggest another line of thinking: maybe we should go broader. Perhaps what we need is to educate kids to become participants and co-creators, to show initiative, to assume responsibility and contribute – as opposed to passively accepting what ever we are offered in a role as receivers, consumers, and clients.

Once we have that kind of culture among kids, I’m confident that entrepreneurs will emerge. Also, we would have the foundation of a democracy that is not just a matter of saying yes or no, but one in which we see eachothers as participants and co-creators.

Sommerhus for sumpere

Af og til er det svært at forstå hvad man ser. I Vollerup, nær Kalundborg, er 6 sommerhusgrunde til salg, men jeg kan ikke rigtig forestille mig, at nogen skulle få lyst til at købe dem. De ligger midt i en sump, som det fremgår af billedet. Der er vel en kilometer til vandet, og der er masser af fine, tørre sommerhuse til salg i området til finanskrise priser. Hvad tænker ejendomsmægleren på? I don't get it.

The business of organizing civil society

The German ride-sharing service ”Mitfahrzentrale” turns out to be a really good example of how a little bit of commercial organization can mobilize resources in civil society that would otherwise be wasted.

I used to hitchhike quite a bit. You would find a good place to stand, maybe hold a sign with your destination, stick out your thumb and hope for a ride. It’s a cheap way to get around, it makes better use of all those empty car seats on the highways – and it allows for all kinds of great meetings and conversations among strangers.

But it’s pretty unpredictable for both riders and drivers. You may end up with a jerk beside you. You never know how long the journey will take, and as a driver, it’s not likely that the rider will offer any payment. Should anything happen, you probably will have no idea what the identity of the other person is.

A ride-sharing service takes a lot of the uncertainty out of this. You go online, post where and when you are going (e.g. Hamburg to Kolding, Thursday afternoon) or you browse the list of rides that are offered by drivers who will take riders.

There’s a set price, so the driver can recover some of the costs (and the ride-sharing services gets a cut of that), and the users of the service are registered. In some cases there are reputation systems, so you can asses the person you will be riding with beforehand.

The point here is that by adding a minimal level of commercial activity, you can make the sharing of resources much more attractive and easy. There are great resources that can be mobilized in the non-commercial realm of civil society, but a lot of the potential is never realized, because of uncertainty, inconvenience, opaque circumstances etc.

This points to a very interesting area of new businesses: providing the framework to harness the potential and resources of civil society.

Generally, I believe we will see a lot more hybrid organizations in the future, where commercial and non-commercial players interact, resulting in the creation of a lot more value than if the game was only pure commercial or pure non-commercial. 

There is a lot of discussion about "gov 2.0" and what the appropriate role of government should be. One of the slogans is to move "from provider to enabler" - in other words, that the government should focus on creating the necessary conditions, infrastructure and framework for productive interaction among companies and citizens. 
That is exactly what the ride-sharing service does. It doesn't deliver the driving, but enables people to get around in a more efficient way. 

What should we tag this with? Collaborative consumption, mesh economy, social networks, enabler/provider, frugal solutions. There is a lot going on. 

A cheaper, stronger state

Interesting challenge:
In the future, governments will need to have more influence, but at a lower cost to tax payers. 

Insights from IDEO

Anyone interested in innovation can probably find inspiration in the brief online newsletter, Patterns, which IDEO publishes. It's a great place to stay updated on the latest buzzwords. Most recent issue is about Gamification, other recent topics were "Serve the people", "Social media bolstering big brands" and "Care and repair".

Lots of good stuff, easily accessible.

Great instrumentalists - a capella

Hardly news, I realize, but I hadn't seen it till now. Just amazing how these guys are great instrumentalists - except that they don't play any instruments.

E.O Wilson - Evolution selects on both group and individual level

E.O Wilson, the grand old biologist, has a new book out - The Social conquest of earth.
While I'm waiting for the mail man to bring me the book, I've listened to a few presentations online.
Wilson just did a Seminar of long term thinking - talk for the Long now foundation. If you are interested in evolution, you should listen to it.
One of his main points is that evolution in fact selects at both group and individual level - not just at the individual level, which has been the orthodoxy for many years.

In his recap of the talk, Steward Brand writes:
Wilson’s alternative he calls “multi-level selection,” where individual selection and group selection proceed together (with kin selection a continuing bit player). In our eusocial species, that mix of traits makes us “permanently unstable, permanently conflicted” between selfish impulses and cooperative impulses. We negotiate these conflicts endlessly within ourselves and with each other. Wilson sees inherent adaptive value in that constant negotiation."

Another good introduction to Wilsons book is this interview with Charlie Rose. At 19 minutes, it's amazingly comprehensive.

Economics as complex evolutionary systems

Eric Beinhocker by blindwatcher


A meeting of two great minds: Richard Dawkins interviews Eric Beinhocker, the author of “The Origin of Wealth”. The 15 minutes interview is a great introduction to the idea of seeing economics as complex systems.

A few quotes from Beinhocker's responses:

…Evolution is a recipe, an algorithm that’s at play in economic systems, just as it is in biological system. And that recipe values cooperation just as much as it favors competition

…We can think of businesses as designs, for instance a design for running a bank, and each of the banks along the high street will have a slightly different way of running a bank – a different design. And the evolutionary competition is a competition for you walking down the high street to determine which bank wil serve you best, which design will suit your needs better than the others.
Where cooperation plays a role, is that you can deliver on a better design if you have strong cooperation, so a bank where the employees work together as a team and cooperate can maek better service than a bank that doesn’t. And large companies with lots of employees cooperating, often have great advantages over much smaller organisations.

…Companies that engender large scale cooperation will tend to be – on average - more successful.

…We often talk of evolution as design without a designer, but in economic systems we have lots of designers - human beings who sit and think of things. And the key role, that plays is that it is a source of variety. When an entrepreneur comes up with a new idea in their garage, that’s adding variety to the system. We can’t predict whether that will work or not untill it’s actually tried, but it creates this teaming variety in the system.