Be the Chaos! (social entropy)

August 26, 2010

Maybe my best advice would be “Be the Chaos!”?

Or maybe according to the Cynefin framework, it would be “Be the Disorder!”?

Point being you want to always operate in the space of chaos and disorder yourself, while working to build emergent interpretants which people can believe in and “lead them out of” the chaos and disorder, to more secure pastures…

We all do it… ever built a company, sold a product, proposed to a girl, argued the definition of a word… or maybe been on the other side, and valued a diploma from a well known university, or accepted a proposal, or “bought into” a product or idea…!

Gandhi said “Be the change you wish to see in the world” and that’s what im getting at… also, Mark Twain said “Once you find yourself on the side of the majority you know it is time to reform”… or maybe your a Wall Street trader and like the famous “buy low and sell high”… or maybe the “get out while your on top”… or hated when your idol “sold out”… gotta love little meaninglessly unoriginal but symbolically different metaphors and analogies.

So what are we always trying to do then?

In the face of constant change and ever increasing disorder (entropy) we try to create little pockets of life (those pesky little systems and networks which seem to EAT the disorder, the energy)… but the trick is never being the last one out… yes the same as with PONZI SCHEMES (which almost any system is, and quite lovely how we all love to convince ourselves they arent)… Any other American here reading who knows about the Social Security system?

You know one way scientists actually look for life on other planets? Looking for areas where energy seems to be disappearing!

Energy is chaos.

Be the Chaos.

Be the energy.

You want to move people, you want to energize them, you want them to “bring forth” your vision. Instill a passion, a desire in them… not a reason, not a logic, not a science… but a mystery, whose only journey leads to your emergent interpretant.

Electricity is amazing… if you send an electric current through something, it tends to “organize” the system.

When universal entropy (disorder) is increasing we try and create tiny little pockets of life which feed off of the external entropy by exporting internal entropy to the surrounding areas or even unsuspecting other life systems (actually most of the time), which may tend to decrease internal entropy for a while, but only increases the entropic pressure on your interiority/exteriority membrane, while WILL lead to a collapse at some point.

Someone will always be the last one out, but atleast if you are the chaos, and not the order, you ahve a better chance of being one of the first?

Wow, what a bumming non-passionate argument… Then again nothing is more passionate than a revolution!

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The Cynefin Company (formerly known as Cognitive Edge) was founded in 2005 by Dave Snowden. We believe in praxis and focus on building methods, tools and capability that apply the wisdom from Complex Adaptive Systems theory and other scientific disciplines in social systems. We are the world leader in developing management approaches (in society, government and industry) that empower organisations to absorb uncertainty, detect weak signals to enable sense-making in complex systems, act on the rich data, create resilience and, ultimately, thrive in a complex world.
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