August 29th, 2003 archives

August 29, 2003 by Patti

The quiet

Yesterday morning, Charter Communications’ Internet service failed across the state of Massachusetts. The web was gone, but the lights were on. So I could work, disconnected, but in a way could not. I went outside to check on the status of the pruning project I’d got a gardener in to help with. I told him, [...]

August 29, 2003 by Patti

Swarmth

I can’t stop thinking about Stowe Boyd’s article on swarm intelligence in July’s Darwin magazine. It just opened a whole new way of thinking about networks in organizations, learning, and adaptability. It’s a great primer on swarming, and the logic of “bottoms-up” decision-making. Consider: “Bottom-up decision-making is based on a belief in adaptation: a large [...]