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“You have to make it live before…” (Great Work quote)

“You have to make it live
before you can understand how it works.”
~ Steven Johnson, Emergence

It’s a terrific book this one, tackling the big big question: how does complexity get created. That is, how do the simple building blocks of life combine to create something more complex. Or to drop to the bottom line here, how does life, civilization happen?

It’s also a little out of date – it was published in 2001, and I’d love to read the 2009 version. Much the same, but a good deal different too as we watch the web and the internet continue to emerge. (As an example of how much is changed, Yahoo is mentioned as the premier browser over Google…)

This quote is just one I pulled out that made me think. What I like about it is this: You can only research and think things through so far, particulary if the “thing” is a complex issue and not a straight-forward, linear piece of machinery. Things get messy and unpredictable – at least at the details level – fast. It’s why Google has everything in permanent Beta mode. Because it all keeps evolving. Emerging.

What are you trying to figure out, that you should be just letting live?

(Why the ant picture?  Johnson spends a good deal of time talking about “hive intelligence” and how from the simple building blocks of “stupid” ants, a complex community is created.)

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