Comments on: Coping With Complexity

By: Pax Robotica

Pax Robotica — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 02:07:28 +0000

Wonderful to have a roadmap to dealing with complexity. Thank you! I am a simple cardboard robot who brings peace to the world! Easy to follow instructions! Are you interested in discussing the political virtue of civility? Twitter @Pax_101

By: Purple Library Guy

Purple Library Guy — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 08:40:48 +0000

It’s a lovely approach to dealing with predicaments. I’m not sure the analogy to wild animals works, though. Many wild animals much of the time use just two steps:
1. Sense
2. Run like crazy

It’s amazing how well such a simple approach works, even though the range of things the animal may be sensing could be very broad. If nothing was going to eat you and you run like crazy, you use a bit of energy–little loss. If something was going to eat you and you fail to run like crazy, you get eaten–huge loss. We can use more sophisticated approaches precisely because we are not wild animals, and so our control over our environment is such that it’s incredibly unlikely as a rule that anything is going to eat us. As soon as the situation becomes more stark, though, we have a tendency to fall back on simple instinctive rules of thumb with proven track records. One unfortunate side effect is that it’s not that hard to give people the impression that the situation is more stark when in fact it is not, leading them to apply fight-or-flight reactions to complex international politics, say.

By: uberVU - social comments

uberVU - social comments — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 22:30:46 +0000

Social comments and analytics for this post…

This post was mentioned on Twitter by DavePollard: Coping With Complexity http://goo.gl/fb/ifpI…

By: Scott Lewis

Scott Lewis — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 22:24:53 +0000

Awesome post! Thanks for writing.

Going through complicated situations has been at the top of my mind and heart lately. It’s good to have outside ideas to run my process through.

Thanks again!

By: Alan Post

Alan Post — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:45:48 +0000

I love the pidgin sign you’ve developed for remembering this list. I use ASL signs for remembering the steps of NVC (observations, feelings, need, requests) and for ORID (A debriefing technique consisting of observation, reflection, introspective, and decisions.) As a tool, I find signing to be an easier way for me to remember techniques like this. I’ve stayed mostly within ASL, however; your system has given me a new perspective.

Some short while ago, Alison Shaffer published a list of daily spiritual practices that she called “Practicing the Daily Simple.”[1] I find her list interesting to compare to yours, as they both practice the same skills. Up until your list calls for collaboration and engagement with other people. Practicing Alison’s daily simple could be seen as practice for the elements of your list that can be practiced alone.

[1]: http://paganpages.org/content/2010/01/song-of-a-daily-druid-5/