Insights

We can trace to a particular place and time the introduction of the word “strategy” into business vocabulary.

Markets imitate the webs of interdependence we find in nature.

The Larch tree has a communication problem. It reproduces with cones – so it’s a conifer. But it’s needles bleach and drop every fall, so it’s deciduous. It has cones and grows fast – but it has a dormancy cycle that makes dense hard wood.

What’s the difference between “Nature” and “Wilderness?” Could it be our point of view?

We may feel a duty to “think for ourselves,” but in practical terms, we believe far more than we can possibly become genuinely informed about.

Complex contagion is the phenomenon in social networks in which multiple sources of exposure to an innovation are required before an individual adopts the change of behavior.

An avocado is just an avocado, until it is raised without pesticides. Then it is worth more.

Beef is just beef, until it is raised without antibiotics. Then it’s worth more.

Principle number one: Take out something harmful.

Here’s a metaphor for an almost-impossible task. Think of a massive boulder that is not perfectly spherical, situated on ground that is not perfectly flat. While the boulder is generally impossible for a person to move, still, if you stand in just the right place, and push on just the right spot, you can get the boulder rolling.

Sometimes before learning can arrive, unlearning needs to happen. What often makes this hard is that ideas (regardless of their present merit) become materialized in structures that conceal their original form as abstractions.