Making Things Work Quotes

“The open source community is an example of the evolutionary processes we have been describing. The rules of the community establish a framework for competition, but do not specify or plan that software will result.”
― Yaneer Bar-Yam, Making Things Work: Solving Complex Problems in a Complex World

“In this regard, it is important to realize that the classroom and the educational system, in general, is a coercive environment. This means that the environment is imposed upon children as opposed to allowing to develop or choose it. Essentially, we judge students based upon on how well they fit into this coercive environment. A broader perspective suggests that when a child finds that she is an environment that is not suited to her, her natural response is to try to change that environment. In the case of a child that is overwhelmed by an overly complex environment, this kind of response is less likely because of the challenge she faces in dealing with the environment, but it could occur. In the case of the child that finds herself in an environment that is too simple, the natural response is apparent: an attempt to make the environment more interesting, more stimulating – so-call disruptive behavior. Therefore, the disruptive classroom behavior is actually quite a reasonable consequence of a coercive environment.”
― Yaneer Bar-Yam, Making Things Work: Solving Complex Problems in a Complex World

“Although Darwin’s theory of evolution discusses how the fitter offspring tend to survive, the reality is that whether or not an offspring will survive is mostly a function of chance due to the many possible wrong choices that exist for each right choice. Higher complexity organisms have more behavioral options, which in turn enables them to make more right choices.”
― Yaneer Bar-Yam, Making Things Work: Solving Complex Problems in a Complex World