I'm working with another professional at the moment, my accountant who is very good at dealing with the consequences of my failure to regard regular book keeping as a important task. She also has qualifications, experience, training etc. etc. Thanks to the consequences of increasing age I am seeing more of my Doctor is also the product of a seven plus year process of training, examination and practice. So I am sorry Jurgen, but the statement that Nobody is a professional is arrant nonsense. Yes of course its good if people choose to behave in a professional manner, but they need to be one first. Behaving like a professional smacks of a superficial con trick, pretending to be something without putting in the effort to acquire the necessary skills and experience.   

Thats the problem with sound bites, and the soundbite generation. It may sound clever, but its too easy to make a vacuous statement. Then when challenged you have to back peddle fast, trying to pretend you meant something other than you said. Far better to think first.

Luke 5:36-39

Its been a busy week in Washington with a packed agenda and an overdue article occupying any free time so posting here has taken second place. However today saw a lunch with old friends Alicia Juarrero and Mike Lissack along with a new friend Stuart Umpleby of GWU. Mike, at a meeting in Bedfont Lakes many years ago told me I had to read Alicia's Dynamics in Action, and that book along with conversations and work with Alicia (one memorable project in Singapore) have contributed a lot to Cognitive Edge. The constraint based definition of complexity and safe-fail to give just two examples. Conversation ranged from plagiarism to politics but we also focused on a common concern: the growth of acceptance of complexity thinking is to be welcomed but far too many people are now leaping to use the language without really thinking through or understanding the implications.

Either way to return to the subject. I think we have several different problems, or types of behaviour:

• Putting old wine into new wineskins
  There are a whole group of people who find the language of complexity attractive, given their prior ideological position. Self-organisation, emergence, natural systems and so on, coupled with some wonderful images and the raw science all make this a form of validation of past practice. For this group natural systems are often held to be of high ethical worth, although they tend to talk of deer in sylvan glades while forgetting the cockroaches.. Self-organisation is seen as an alternative to control, rather than as a compliment and there is general lack of appreciation of constraints and their role in enabling evolution. Nothing changes in terms of what this group do, its just the language around the practice that changes.
• Putting new wine into old wineskins
  This is a more subtle problem, where people understand that complexity is different, but wrap it up in conventional language to make organisations more comfortable. They fail to realise that new language leads to new thinking and that using old language will simply allow novelty to dissipate. I think the motivation here is often a lack of courage, or an unwillingness to commit. That is OK with some changes in theory, but not in phase shifts, or paradigm changes. A major problem here is that it ends up in the same place as the earlier sin, with no real change no learning.

Now I am not criticising people in either category per se, I think we are dealing with missed opportunities more than maliciousness. I do however criticise those who just sweep up complexity theory along with any other bright things they find attractive and put them together in a sort of potpourri of interesting things, generally thrown together in a powerpoint slide set with lots of quotations and pictures but little thinking through of the implications.

Its also important to remember that old wine has value and new wine needs to mature. If you want to take radical new ideas and thinking you have to allow them to mature and develop, the interaction of theory with practice to develop something with taste (and I use that word deliberately with multiple meanings). The old wine still has value, but the new wine is maturing. What we need is people who know how to store it, decant it and guide people into different pathways.

In contrast Attwood's dark tale remains ever present in its topicality. It tells the story of a right wing evangelical takeover of the US. The parallel reduction in fertility arising from chemical pollution produces a perverted need to handmaids to bear the children of the powerful. I won't spoil the story for those who have not read it, but the ritualisation of the execution scene and the hypocrisy of the night club for the elite with their Jezebels, together with the need for near permanent war were for me some of the most memorable and relevant aspects of this story. It was published in 1985 (a year earlier would have had more irony) and over a quarter of a century later it remains a prophecy with a sense of immanence.

I was prompted to write this by a link in the Guardian to a new edition of the book by the Folio Society with some truly wonderful illustrations. The film is pretty good as well. I'd make it compulsory reading in all US schools but of course Elizabeth Kantor, author of The politically Incorrect Guide to English and American Literature has condemned it, surprise surprise.

So that was the context of the conversation, however my interest here is the general issue about how you achieve change from a complexity perspective. As a side note it's interesting how may people claim the language of complexity but revert back to older models of problem definition and solution finding; its a sure sign of someone who has skimmed the language and finds it exciting but has not thought in any depth about the implications.

I have previously posted on related material in the "Babies and Bathwater" series but what I want to focus on here is the difference between dealing with the realities of the present and attempting to close the gap on an idealised future. So let me start by making my position clear.

• If the situation is complicated then you should define the endpoint you want to achieve and engineer a solution or series of solutions which will achieve that end point. This can be linear and mechanistic (nothing wrong with that in the right context)
• If the situation is complex. then there are multiple possible alternative options and while you might be able to set a direction, you don't know any of the details and you should remain open to swapping the destination as things evolve/emerge.

The implications of that are pretty clear. Rather than trying to solve the problems of the world (or the organisation or whatever) by sitting around with a group of like minded people and creating pipe dreams about how things should be (a sort of reverse Four Yorkshireman sketch) you instead focus on what you can change in the here and now. Big movements like the Arab Spring for example are triggered by small events, but they have to be predisposed for those triggers and which will work is not predictable anyway. You also have to be realistic about the scope of what you are doing. So if you want to change organisations, three basic principles:

• You don't lecture management on how they are old fashioned in their thinking, instead you put them into situations and give them tools where old ways of thinking are not sustainable and they have to act differently. If they work it out for themselves its sustainable.
• You pick off areas where the pain threshold is the highest, for example (to pick up Agile themes) the interaction between approaches such as AGILE and the measurement and management practices of the HR function. You then create approaches that change the measurement and feedback mechanisms that work in parallel with existing methods. That new project management system (something I am working on to declare a commercial interest) can start to provide HR with better data on people and "competences" than their current systems so they choose to adopt it over time.
• Sell middle-bottom-up an idea originally put forward by Nonaka and one I respect. It's not too difficult to get senior management to buy into an idea, but it will only happen if middle management are bought in and they are the hardest.

That means you have to embed change in process, not depend on individual competence. You can't achieve change based on ideal behaviour, but you can change process and context. You also need to embrace dissent, the problem with idealists is they can't absorb dissent and learn from it, they seek confirmation rather than conflict and this fail. More on those points in future posts.

Aside on the Rugby

The good news on today's match that is that we won, and qualified for the Quarter Finals, but bad news is that we missed a bonus point by inches and this have an away match against the current champions over Easter, rather than a home match against Toulouse. Good news we play better as underdogs and I have an excuse to spend the Easter weekend in Dublin. The other good news is 5 Celtic League, 1 English and 2 French quarter finalists which kinda makes a point.

The other thing we started to realise is that rural nature of this walk will soon be lost. Our next two sections from Shiplake to Marlow and then to Windsor are the last rural sections, after than the walk is the main urban and on metalled roads or engineered tracks. The section to Mapledurham is a delight, but after that its best forgotten. From the road diversion to Tilehurst until you leave Reading the bath is rank in parts and only the delights of modern urban architecture can be seen to the right. The rule along this section is look left. The Gasometers can be sort of scenic at a mush (see right) but the river is the main attraction and with the setting sun providing a backcloth the walk returns to rural delights.

The Kennet and Avon (a walk I completed earlier this year) joins as you leave Reading and the Thames itself swells and grows. It moves less quickly, or least it appears too give the volume and depth of water. We are also in the territory made famous by Kenneth Graham in Wind in the Willows. There are many competing claims to the source of Toad Hall, and of Toad with speculation that the two may not be connected. But the river now has many a boat, but more the serious rowing club than Edwardian gentlefolk. However you can see the attraction. I am half thinking of hiring a boat once we have completed this walk and reversing the journey on the Thames itself.

Private schools abound, we passed Bluecoats (alma mater of Ricky Gervais) and we finished shortly after Shiplake College which has a wonderful visa to complete the architecture. I'd still remove their charitable status by the way, but their presence has preserved the playing fields and buildings.

By the time we reached Shiplake my muscles were starting to fee the effect. I had walked three miles more than my companions the previous week and also thrown in a solo walk from Eastbourne over Beachy Head and the Severn Sisters midweek. My fitness levels are coming back slowly, but I am pleased to say the stamina is still there. I am also remembering how much I enjoy walking, both with people and on my own (the two are very different). Pressures of work and travel have provided an excuse until I decided to take myself in hand last year and its coming. The long distance paths that are feature of the British Landscape allow for a ritual to be established and goals to be set. For a timetable fetishist such as myself, augmented by the internet there is the added pleasure of planning!

Of course, if we take the basic principles of distributed cognition (I remain uncomfortable with the more popular but inaccurate Wisdom of Crowds) then it would be better if the twelve good men and true (apologies for sexism but I am quoting) were say five pods of three each optimised for diversity making decisions independently of each other. Pods would allow for some discussion, but not the entrained patterns of discussion so well portrayed in many a film. Of course we could go with Sid James in Hancock's Half Hour and cut the cards: anything under 7 and he's guilty.

Not that it hasn't been tempting to revert to a more expedient approach over the years, but we have resisted it despite multiple slipped timescales. We are now more or less there and its time to open up some aspects of what we are doing for wider participation. So we are today announcing the first training event for programmers who want to know how to develop within the SenseMaker® 3.0 ecology. The bad news is that it is short notice (8-10 February in Amsterdam), the good news is that for suitably qualified people it's free, you just cover your costs and there is a good chance of work to follow.

What we decided to do was to create an object based architecture in four tiers, so database, business, application objects plus a presentation layer. At the same time we want to make entry easy but get the expectations right. That means:

1. We will shortly launch a self configurable low cost version of SenseMaker® for basic capture of narrative material and indexing, there will also be signifier libraries at some stage to select from. That will be the a what you see is what you get version, don't expect customisation
2. We expect the bulk of projects to skin their own versions, possibly integrating into existing IT systems and as such we already have a couple of major clients committed to the training. For those without IT departments we expect them to use the developer pool who will be authorised to work within the architecture.
3. We also expect people to create new business and application objects within the architecture allowing other start ups to gain a kick start in developing new products and also the ability to use other existing objects. The business side of this will allow rewards to be allocated for use. There is a lot more to this - consider it a type of app store for organisations, potentially a real flexible and evolving alternative to enterprise wide applications - but for now that is the high level more detail in future posts.

The analysis side of SenseMaker® will work in a similar way, you will have a canvass into which you can drag and drop objects for presentation, analysis etc and a lot of those objects will not be developed by us, but by people in the pool, We also intend to put our money where our mouth is and commission SenseMaker® standard objects from that developer pool rather than recruit directly. That allows us to use a network of people, deeply skilled who want to work outside of the corporate environment.

Do joining the developer pool has a lot of attractions. It will mean your name is available to clients and non-technical consultants who want to skin or customise SenseMaker®. It also means if you see a market opportunity or gap you can create objects that move into the software and picked up by our growing network of consultants and companies, and for which you can then earn money. I could say more but you get the gist.

The first course is free, as we will be learning to and its a real chance to get in on the ground floor

Course description & requirements

Cognitive Edge is opening the SenseMaker® Platform up to allow developers to create plugins and widgets to capture and visualise data. We are offering a course oriented around introducing the SenseMaker® Platform to developers as well as allowing developers to attain the knowledge required to support themselves and their partners. After participating in the course attendees will have an understanding of the SenseMaker® Platform, will have had experience creating some basic plugins, and will be given access to some Cognitive Edge source code in order to work with Cognitive Edge to improve the tool sets and APIs that are being developed. The course will run over three days in which the attendees will first be introduced to the platform, architecture, and concepts behind the architecture. The second and third days of the course will include practical exercises developing in both the Collector and Explorer tools.

Participants will be expected to have three years experience of JAVA and be generally comfortable with what will be a lot of technical content.

I also note that only effective counter to a story that people want to believe is rarely the facts, its more likely to be a counter story or a killer metaphor. The latter is one of the most effective weapons in rhetoric by the way, associating an idea with a commonly understood image or story in which the answer is already known by the population. I used it once with a heckler at a conference in Atlanta who was trying to argue that my use of negative stories for learning was evil and should be replaced by his particular brand of Appreciate Enquiry. I made a link to the final song in Monty Python's Life of Brian in response. In my defence I tried a more rational approach first.

Story-telling as an approach is bandied about on the web as if it was some universal panacea to the ills of formal communication. While it can be useful its various advocates and practitioners need to be aware that there is a second and more common meaning of story-telling in English, it's the sense of you are telling me a story, you are lying, or weaving partial facts to present the story you want me to hear. Its not enough to say that you always tell Executives you train to tell the truth, in part because they probably believe they already are. In effect they are weaving the story they want people to hear, it will be grounded in anecdotal material and may well be scattered with facts, but at its heart they are telling a story.   Gabriel finishes his post with the phrase … when it comes to political discussions, 'stories' alone are not enough. For politics his comment is critical, but it could equally well apply to corporations. His article "Why it is easier to slay a dragon that to kill a myth" referenced in his blog post is excellent reading and should be an essential pre-read for anyone moving into the narrative field.

Now we are narrative based intelligences, the use of story is basic to our meaning making activities. Narrative allows us at times to transcend the mundane, but it also means that we easily become muckrakers. Its not enough to teach people to be better story tellers, we need to make sure the audiences are better critical listeners. There are several actions here, on with I have posted before, but they include:

1. A lot needs to happen back in schools. Why we don't teach philosophy in primary schools and above on a more consistent basis I don't know. At least at the level to teach people the basic logical errors and the ability to dissect an argument
2. Debating especially where you don't choose sides but get allocated to a position with which you disagree. At school and college this used to be powerful, but its less common these days. However the use of the technique during formal presentations could be useful, especially if points lead to prizes. I remember enthusiastically arguing for capital punishment at University (something I dispose) when a place in the next stage of the Observer Mace was at stake. At the end of that I still opposed what I consider a barbaric practice, but I had considerably broadened my perspective.
3. We need fewer spin doctors, and includes corporates. More leaders talking as they see things rather than being coached. Get rid of the pre-recorded sound bites. If you can hold your own in front of a live audience you probably need to know your stuff, anyone can produce the perfect sound bite with the right professional support. This is of particular importance in politics where we can see in both Blair and Cameron the products of a sound bite culture.
4. SenseMaker® in some uses is designed to provide an evidence base to measure dominant narrative patters and response resonance (the degree to which your communication is being picked up). By dealing at a fragmented anecdotal level, but critically allowing people to self-index their own narrative we can provide measures of coherence for told stories - i.e. how authentic is the story told, to the underlying narrative patterns of the organisation as a whole.
5. I hesitate to say this, but I think there may be a case for finding ways to dampen the flow of narratives on the internet. Ideas spread so quickly these days that facts are always playing catch up to falsity. That however is a much bigger issue (especially with the WIkipedia close down this week, which I support) and I have no easy answer.

That is a starting point, and in so far as we all tell stories we are all hypocrites if we criticise the act in others. However being a part of the situation does not exempt any of us from trying to do something about it. We need the power of myth, the motivation capacity of a story to create altruism and heroism, but we also badly need the ability to hold back, to say hang on a minute. We also beed more of the right sort of professionalism in narrative work. That means not offering cheap palliatives to poor management communication skills, focusing on teaching listening skills as much as communication ones and above all, learning to think, to evaluate, to criticise.

Now I say all of that, and its messy, its not as productive as I would have liked and its Sunday of all days. I wonder if in this modern day there is any rest short of the grave?

For anyone interested, next Saturday we plan the section from Pangbourne to Shiplake which takes us past the half way mark on the trip. Others are already planning to join that section so if anyone fancies it let me know let me know. It will probably involve lunch at a Thameside pub. The section is around 13 miles and there is an easy train route that returns us to the origin via Reading.

The early start gave considerable reward in lighting conditions but it was bitterly cold, around minus five centigrade. As I passed Wallingford castle on my way out the sun was just starting to appear above the trees and created a spectacular effect with criss crossing com trails in the early morning sky. Frost was everywhere enhancing the beauty of the scene. At the lock itself the water vapour from the weir with the sun and a convenient tree produced the shot to the right. That was achieved by pressing the camera lens up to the gap in a security fence. I should say that there was no need of that, or to close the lock. There were already scaffolding and plank bridges that could have been made available to the public at least at the weekend. I suspect an overzealous health and safety culture is to blame for that. I'd argue the risk of the road walk was higher than falling into the river, but then of course that would be some other organisations liability.

I walked upstream of the lock to the old ferry crossing point to salve my conscience having not walked across the lock itself (yes I can be that bad) and then set off downstream meeting Julia and Peter before getting to Wallingford proper. They had arrived by bus from Oxford the best part of an hour later. From thence the path took us down the increasingly tamed Thames. The Wallingford rowing club provided the odd noisy intrusion as did a number of early morning dog walkers but mostly we had it to ourselves. Peter and I had a ferocious argument about IQ tests and Julia pointed out Anglo-Saxon brick walk. As you undertake a project like this you settle into a comfortable familiarity of conversation. There were the odd spectacular example of modern architecture, a wonderfully peaceful scene with a swan (pictured up front) and continued great light effects and cameo pieces (see left).

As the sun rose so did the temperature and began to regret some of my clothing choices for the day. The sun was in our eyes and it was difficult to see at times. Walking backwards might have improved things but the prospect of an unwanted dip in the freezing river prevented any such rash action. We stopped near the lock at Goring for a quick lunch. The "gap" at Goring and Streatley is an ancient site on the route from London to Oxford and now combines road, rail and river. It also marks the crossing point with the Ridgeway which is also on my target to walk this year. It passes from Ivenhoe to Avebury and I may contract one of the many services that book accommodation and transport luggage on Britian's long distance paths. At least for the first three days, the remainder I can do on public transport from home.

The path diverts from the Thames bank shortly after Goring, climbing up into the beech woods but maintaining views of the river for the majority of the path. This was a welcome piece of variety and also provided shade from the sun which was still low in the sky. Picture to the right on the early stages. The only downside was a near vertical section that one does not expect on a river bank walk. A notice at the top apologies and advised that alternatives were being sought. From there it was a simple descent to Pangbourne and we decided to stop there heading to the Cross Keys for a few drinks, thanks to the Good Pub Guide app for that one.

The day was completed by watching the Blues beat London Irish to top their Heineken Cup Pool. Given the proximity of the stadium to the end of the walk this worked well. I had sent Huw back to University the previous weekend with a spare car key. He came down for the match and it was thus possible to text a "Pick me up from the Cross Keys" message after he had collected the car from the station car park. A got a rather sarcastic response about old people and drink, but not to worry. I enjoyed the match, but every bone in my body wanted to go home for a hot bath.

Imagination is also a key part of this period, Even in the 50s and 60s we did more with two cardboard boxes, the dressing up box (discarded parental clothes), a step ladder and a mob than modern children do with the most sophisticated and elaborate games. The difference was that we used our imagination to create wonderful constructs on simple objects and commonly understood contexts. My sister and I along with three friends from the same street conducted the entire Viking Invasion of Britain over a week from that construct. For myself and my sister probably the supreme example of this type of story was Swallows and Amazons.

The reason for all of this is my having a meeting in London and checking to see what was on in the Theatre. The musical of Swallows and Amazons, produced for the first time last year had a great poster and the reviews seemed good, so I booked a ticket. I was a bit nervous as seeing someone else's interpretation of a key part of your childhood can be traumatic. However I didn't need to be. The production created boats using the odd stick and a packing case, but it became real as the actors lived the children's excitement at sailing to Wild Cat Island. Roger tacked up the back of the stage to deliver the famous If not Duffers won't drown; if Duffers better drowned telegram that gave permission for the first trip. Susan was always trying to be sensible, John brave, nancy a deadly pirate and Peggy lapsed into common sense from time to time with great timing. Roger, well was Roger and the largest adult actor had a fabulous time playing a seven year old boy.   

Titty was a bit disappointing both the actor and the script. Titty is the mystic of the group. Her key scene as Robinson Crusoe with her mother as Man Friday while the rest of the Swallows are off to steal the Amazon was omitted. That was a great pity as she chooses to stay in the fantasy, rather than take a reality looked after in comfort and thus saves the day both capturing the Amazon and discovering Captain Flint's Treasure. The House Boat battle was wonderful, but didn't need to addition of Mrs Walker as Queen Isabella, that is not a part of the book and it adds nothing. But if you get a chance, and if you loved the whole series or any part of it go. Its on national tour from next week. The books took a few liberties as well I suppose. There is no way a centre-board less boat with four crew members would ever beat one with a centre-board and only two in a race, but where the story demands …..

I was also musing on my favourite books in the series and decided that Great Northern and We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea were up there, along with Pigeon Post. Magical books, in the main because the magic came from imagination not artefacts; ordinary (albeit middle class) children in an ordinary world transforming it by magic to a shared space with their readers that created something other, something mysterious but comfortable and challenging both linguistically, morally and physically

Oh, and for me Nancy and Titty were the two heroes of the story, they had depth the others, well, were predictable

And to complete the quote which heads this post:

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up

Pablo Picasso

The venue is a great place. When I was Director of the EPSRC Complexity Programme we held the main event here and its well suited to open discussion. Lots of good places to walk, or just sit and talk. The location is under half an hour from Heathrow Airport or Reading Rail station so its easy to get to and we'll sort shared taxis etc nearer the time. We'll do all the normal tweet stream stuff for people who can't make it but want to be involved.

I'll be blogging about LEAN (which I think suffers from being linked to Six Sigma in several sectors) and complexity shortly as well as some of the other areas. So will the rest of the faculty.

At the very least you get a very low cost conference! At the best you become a part of creating something which could last.

I remember when I started maths at sixth form as two separate subjects we had two very different teachers. Miss Maddock was a genius, she did the whole school timetable in her head every year then just wrote it down. She had been to the US to do her doctorate in the early part of the last century which for a woman was an amazing achievement. She also looked after a farm for her bachelor brother Tom and was generally considered a nutter by all bar those who she taught. Pure and Applied were small classes, most did them as one subject. So five of us would sit in the small classroom across from the female staff room and just live the inspiration provided, that we only ever partially understood. We learnt from textbooks after the event, and increasingly before so that we could keep up.

In contrast, for applied maths we had Mrs Shannon. In all my years to O Level I never got less than 100% in any maths exam bar the one time she deducted two marks for untidy handwriting to teach me a lesson. She had a sense of humour but she had not taught applied maths before so she was reading the text book a week ahead of us. However she told us the truth and we learnt together. It was a very different experience and both models had considerable value.

So there are different ways that we teach, different levels, but in teaching there is never a need to compromise, to speak down to your class.

I hadn't known that Coca-Cola was marketed in Hitler's Germany and that prisoners of war were surprised that Americans had the drink. I knew that bottling operations around the world were key to Coca-Cola's strategy, but I had realised that anthropologists see this as displacing responsibility to local suppliers for all sorts of ethical and other issues. The form of the "mediating object" and the functional possibilities it incorporates determine attention and the wider role within material cultures (a lot of Dant 1999:154 here). That gives me some new insights to work I am doing on brand.

I now have to read up on material cultures (most of my anthropology has been pure cultural anthropology and the intersection of anthropology and biology. That will be interesting, but its far more interesting to talk with your own offspring and sense their joy of discovery around words, concepts and ideas. Paradoxically talking about containment is uncontained.   

I was reminded of it when this wonderful collection of bookshelf porn popped up on a idle stroll through Facebook. Hat tip to Paulette Paterson via Alex Tewes for that. My children have oft mocked my inability to pass my a bookshop without emerging with a purchase, a sin or virtue that I shared with my mother while she was alive. I have only ever thrown away one book in my life, although several have been "borrowed" and may not return to the fold. Such losses have not stemmed the flow and just over a year ago I resorted to building book corridors to accommodate the volume.

I am by bent, a user of specialist tools. I contrasted this with Euan's approach to using the iPhone for everything in a previous post. So I have a sat nav, and an iPhone, and an iPad, and two cameras (portable, serious) and now a Kindle. The net carrying capacity is less despite such multiple devices and it allows more flexibility and, critically better management of battery life!

That said a Kindle changes habits, and there are some things it does not do well. So I have over the last few months evolved a policy for book purchases and have the following taxonomy:

• Serious non-fiction books that I may need to read more than once I buy in hardback and mark up with a fountain pen as I read them, both paragraphs and my own notes in the margins. I know I could do that in the iPad or Kindle but it does not work as well on recovery. I can pick up a book I have read, flick through and find things quickly. I can't do that with a keyword search or bookmark tagging.   
• Some critical non-fiction books I have now bought for the Kindle as well as having the hard copy - these are the ones I might want to reference while travelling. Its a small but élite collection.
• Less serious non-fiction, such as popular management books that I need to read to be aware, or incensed I now buy for the kindle and skim them as necessary. I am marking those up with highlighters as necessary but I am not especially worried about finding the material.
• My collection of history books has also migrated to the Kindle as they tend to be read once without markup.   
• Important fiction, especially science fiction from major authors I will now buy in Hardback as I want the physical feel of the book. That may change but for the moment that is where I am.
• All other fiction which I will probably read once is now on the Kindle, with much reduced luggage loads in consequence. My ability to survive on carry on only is now extended to three weeks from two in consequence.
• Maps, guidebooks etc need to be thrown in a rucksack and examined in hailstorms so they remain physical. Mind you the ViewRanger app which I reported here (thanks to Euan again for that recommendation) means that I no longer carry maps for routes in which there is always a safe exit. The Thames Walk for example is just fine with the app alone. In the mountains I would still have a real map and a compass.
• Finally there are books for reading in the bath, these are ones where the damage from falling asleep is acceptable. I have a few books that are twice their published slides due to frequent full immersion. Fortunately I have a large volume of fiction awaiting reading so that need is satisfied without additional purchases. These days I collect whole series of science fiction and fantasy before I start reading volume one. Its easier that way.

So that is the current strategy, rather like Cynefin its about bounded applicability. However, if I had a larger house with more capacity for books, well I just might revert. Books call to you from bookshelves, you merely access then electronically.