April 12, 2011 An advisory group of Compression Thinkers met this past weekend in Chicago. They formally decided to form a Compression Institute and form beta versions of local learning groups in several cities. A beta group is already underway in Indianapolis. It’s...
April 12, 2011 Hormesis is an example of non-linear thinking clashing with linear. Hormesis, in general, is that the effects of a substance at high and low concentrations may be very different. Vitamins like A, C, and D and several metallic elements are well known...
March 29, 2011 The Sendai (or Tohoku) earthquake has been called a “Black Swan,” a totally unforeseeable event. Can organizations prepare for black swans, or that idea totally illogical hokum? An example of a pure black swan event was discovery of archaea, the third...
March 29, 2011 Systemic bias is an inseparable part of organizational culture, the common pattern of thinking that goes with it, and the premises by which all human systems function. Therefore each of us has a systemic bias. However, we may be unaware of its unstated...
March 9, 2011 My own path toward Compression Thinking began almost 50 years ago, asking dumb questions in Economics 101. Economists seemed to build complex models on overly simplistic assumptions, for instance that all of us are motivated by self-interest – but I knew...
March 11, 2011 In February, the UN’s Global FAO Food Price Index pushed further above its former peak in July 2008, the same month that oil prices peaked above $140 a barrel. The 2008 peak subsided quickly because it was partly speculative trading, but not before food...
February 24, 2011 Of necessity, infants unable to put food in their own mouths are totally me-centered, able only to squall for attention. Transformation into socially responsible adults begins with parental responsibility. More and more people nudge us along in due...
February 24, 2011 Phosphorus is an element essential to biology. Although a miniscule amount does the trick, nothing grows without it, so it has no substitute. The global market price of phosphate rock spiked at $430 per metric ton three years ago, and is now about...