Sometimes you come across a well worded criticism, I referenced one from the Archbishop of Canterbury last week. I came across another when there were attempts by the Randinistas to delete it from the Wikipedia. The whole thing is worth reading but the final paragraphs are well written and to the point:

Rand's readers will invariably admit that they first responded to her writing during adolescence. That makes sense. A simplified world of brilliant and unappreciated beings fighting for the recognition they deserve is understandably appealing to teenagers.

These are romance novels with a patina of pseudo-philosophy which is well-suited to those desperate for adulthood. Indeed, Rand is probably best read by those still young enough to miss the implication of her beliefs: neither charity nor compassion nor common cause have any value when compared with the transcendence of the individual mind.

This isn't philosophy, it's petulance. And 50 years on, these novels read like a relics.

A surge in sales of Atlas Shrugged may reflect a depressingly adolescence approach to politics and morality, and not just any adolescent but rather that spoilt brat down the street who has never been subject to any constraint. Of course it could get worse.

I have just been told that the seminar I am giving at the University of Surrey this Tuesday lunch time is open (although there are limited places). The title of the seminar is: From Induction to Abduction: a new approach to research and productive enquiry. As well as the practice of micro-narrative or abductive research I plan to outline some of the basic theory, in particular to the American Pragmatists Dewey and Peirce. Taget audience is those working on social science research, experimental philosophy, ethnography and management science.

I'm working on a history of the Cynefin model. The number if citations and mentions seems to have gone up markedly in the last few months which is pleasing. However with growing use there are some misunderstandings of the history, and odd claim for influence which has surprised me! The sequence goes something like this:

Continue reading "The evolution of Cynefin over a decade" »

As a part of the general sort of the study I have been cataloguing my library. Once upon a time this would have been a major undertaking, but now with the benefit of a hand scanner and Bookpedia (thanks to the twitterverse for helping make that choice) its become a lot easier! I'm only half way through the process and have barely touched the science fiction collection yet. That may be harder as many books predate ISBN codes.

For those interested here is the list of books that I consider to have been critical in the whole body of my work. If you order via the CE link we earn some money! I should say now that the list is not exhaustive, I still have some shelves to catalogue, and presence on the list is not endorsement of the ideas contained in each volume. Several go back to the 70s and my Catholic Marxist days, there are two volumes of poetry and a fair amount of philosophy. Note that there is only one knowledge management book and that I don't necessarily recommend. It's there because it triggered me to look into complexity via its use (incorrect I now think) of autopoiesis. Working Knowledge from Prusak and Davenport is a classic here, and while talking with Larry had a great influence over the years (and I may publish that list of people one of these days), the book summarised a field which I was familiar with. You may also notice the more or less complete absence of any popular management books!

It's a fairly eclectic mix but my criteria was any book I had read twice, or which I picked up and referenced frequently. I have also loaded them to Library Thing but not really set that up for social sharing yet. If you want to see the list of books which may get added to the list, then my planned reading list is here.

A literate insult, with complex metaphors can be a delight. Regardless of your views on the legitimacy or not of the invasion of Iraq, this recent comment from the Archbishop of Canterbury is a delight. I quote: I did once rather unkindly say that Tony Blair did do God but he didn't do irony. Irony is when you recognise that your own sense of dramatic power is always something that is going to be absurd in the light of truth. The readiness to cope with that absurdity is something that you have to learn in order to grow up.

The context was a lecture on Dostoevsky, easily one of my favorite authors (and I am pleased to say my daughter as well in recent years). The best teacher I had in my philosophy course at Lancaster was Prof. Benson whose original degree was Literature, and he taught ethics in part through the medium of Dostoevsky. A point he made, which is repeated by Rowan in this lecture is a good one. The characters in Dostoevsky reflect on their actions, and share the burdens of others. The recommendation that Blair read more of the great Russian has many layers of meaning. In that spirit you can work out the significance of the image for yourself.

Continue reading "My study, a picture and a hobby refound" »

So far I have talked about the issues and common misunderstandings as to the nature of the problem and its resolution. I then developed a series of core principles that should be applied in this ever present issue in organisations. I now want to move on to describe solutions based on those principles, which hopefully avoid the misunderstandings! This will take four more posts starting tomorrow and I will cap the whole thing with a summary which will include a reflection on ethical issues.

Continue reading "KSS3: A transition to solutions" »

Just before Christmas I started off this thread by summarising the reasons that people have given me over the years in respect of the need to share knowledge across silos within organisations, both in Industry and Government. I also identified two common mistakes in finding solutions. These were (i) assuming that the problem was one of information sharing and (ii) attempting to define and prescribe ideal behaviour. The latter point linked to the all to common question: How do I create a knowledge sharing culture? Unfortunately it's the wrong question; cultures evolve over time, there is no divine watchmaker who can design or create a culture.

In this second part I want to focus on four core guiding principles that will underlie any successful approach to the problem, and will then move on, in at least one possibly more, posts to summarise some methods and techniques that can be used. The picture by the way is part of the solution, but I'll come to that later. Some of these correspond with my seven principles of knowledge management so should be familiar to regular readers.

Continue reading "KSS2: Organising principles" »

Just before Christmas I got a paper from Bill McKelvey of UCLA with a request to see if I could get it to the attention of Lord Turner who recently said in Prospect Magazine that London's financial sector was swollen beyond its socially useful size. His paper addresses some of the reasons why that might happen, with implications for the strength of the pound, British membership of the Euro zone and so on. Now Bill is a key member of the academic group working on social complexity and the above view is not a consensus one. I think he is a bit hard on the UK, Pierpaolo Andriani, Paul Omerod and Max Boisot who were also a part of the last Durham Group meeting disagree with the proposition. However there is a germ of something here. So I will set the context here, and then you can read the paper and make your own minds up.

Continue reading "Elephants, fleas and the City of London" »