First full post in the trialectic series - this one on scaling. thecynefin.co/decompositio...

A new series on trialectics, a concept which has been in development since 2021. It is a new category in anthro-complexity, alongside frameworks, methods, acronyms, and tools. trialectics are heterogeneous while dichotomies, dilemmas, & dialectics tend to homogeneity. thecynefin.co/thinking-in-...

My 'perstringent and peroratory' attack on the misuse of the Box aphorism produced an interesting question on the role of abduction - this is my response. thecynefin.co/where-the-ab...

The Sediment of Signs, responding to a rich set of comments on questions on yesterday's post. So now we address semiosis over time, naturalised constraints, and survival in informal containers. thecynefin.co/the-sediment...

Today's follow-up post to yesterday's on Ingold may seem a little academic, but it is important to understanding anthro-complexity. Narrative commitment in anthro-complexity as Peircean rather than Saussurean thecynefin.co/signs-all-th...

Another post in the series seeking to define anthro-complexity in relationship to other bodies of both theory and practice. This one, which is tentative, looks to the work of Ingold. thecynefin.co/reading-ingo...

Mayday reflections and the need to rethink both government and governance - still a little obsessed with estuaries, mind you. thecynefin.co/beltane-and-...

Anyone else fed up to the back teeth with people misusing Box's 'All models are wrong"? The aphorism was never a licence for epistemological indifference or downright laziness. thecynefin.co/all-models-a...

Follow-up to the Stacey post is live. Leadership in the Estuary takes the argument into Art of Hosting, systems leadership, & the political economy of distributed practice. This one maps the terrain, names the power dynamics, & acknowledges what it cannot yet answer thecynefin.co/leadership-i...

Chris Mowles has announced the commissioning of a revised edition of his book. This is a response from a different tradition because the questions his work raises matter for the whole field. Thanks to Mark Downham for the generative dialogue that shaped it. thecynefin.co/stacey-unres...

A concluding note, for now, on the Channel and the Estuary series, this time using the Elephant's Child from Kipling's Just So Stories for additional meaning-making. It includes a table and a question ... thecynefin.co/all-set-abou...

Adding braided rivers to estuaries, fjords, deltas, salt marshes, and flood plains thecynefin.co/the-braided-...

Further thoughts on elephants and estuaries, in the main responding to some very interesting comments on the previous two days. thecynefin.co/the-estuary-...

Big Red Elephants Dance Rather Thoughtfully; more thinking about estuaries as a metaphor for the organisation. A provisional post, so comments welcome thecynefin.co/big-red-elep...

An important new post (well, I think it is) that starts a major extension of the estuarine metaphor & mapping: fjordic & deltic modes of suppression, the adjacent fertility of floodplains & salt marshes. All plus creating a substrate for serendipity thecynefin.co/fjordic-delt...

Continuing with the brownfield series, this time on lessons learning, narrative enhanced doctrine and training LLMs thecynefin.co/lessons-lear...

Conrad Taylor 1954 - 2026 thecynefin.co/conrad-taylo...

Second post in the brownfield/greenfield series, recognising co-creation from the comments to the first thecynefin.co/always-in-br...

The first of two posts looking at change in organisations and society through the metaphor of building on brown-field and green-field sites. thecynefin.co/on-a-brownfi...

I finally caught up with reflections on my two earlier posts on anthro-complecity and aspects of cybernetics, in which the comments on Boyd's OODA loop were the most substantive, so this post addresses those specifically thecynefin.co/i-can-destro...

A three-part series that examines the idea of wild places and innovation in Brittonic & Goidelic Celtic traditions and in the Welsh Poets. I'm working on the concepts in European traditions that allow us to reimagine the world without misappropriating others. thecynefin.co/the-wild-pla...

Today's post is about sacrifice, through a theatrical lens, but with some anger at what I consider a lack of solidarity with Ukraine thecynefin.co/the-shoulder...

First of the promised occasional SF series, this one contrasting the approaches to communication and reconilliantion in Star Trek (in particular Darmok) with the Dark Forest assumptions in the Three Body Problem thecynefin.co/sf-dark-fore...

Ashby Inverted: a reflection on requisite variety, constant overhead, and the structural case for distributed sense-making thecynefin.co/ashby-invert...

Ashby Inverted: a reflection on requisite variety, constant overhead, and the structural case for distributed sense-making thecynefin.co/ashby-invert...

Star Trek, never Star Wars, anthropologists who wrote science fiction/fantasy and alternative histories. An introduction to what I intend to be an occasional series over the next few months, and an invitation to contribute ideas thecynefin.co/seeing-slant/

This morning's post is on my being a member of the 'unkindness of ravens'. thecynefin.co/an-unkindness/

Scaling in complexity - not by aggregation or replication but by decomposition and recombination thecynefin.co/scaling/

Epistemic Parasitism, a polemical post on "how genuinely centrifugal thinking gets repackaged as a centripetal product" thecynefin.co/epistemic-pa...

Wrapping up the Dao series for now (but I will return to sacrifice in a future post). Here I respond to some of the comments and sharpen up my criticism: "The misappropriation of Daoism into Western complexity frameworks is a Chess move performed on a wéiqí board" thecynefin.co/a-game-of-en...

A follow-up on yesterday's post on Daoism and dichotomies, which acts as a bridge to what will be a more substantial post tomorrow thecynefin.co/on-misapprop...

New post 'The Way Is Not a Map', complexity in dialogue with Daoism and the dangers of layering dichotomies. thecynefin.co/the-way-is-n...

A transition post - the main themes of the last few weeks and an indication of what is coming in April. thecynefin.co/70399-2/

A transition post - the main themes of the last few weeks and an indication of what is coming in April. thecynefin.co/70399-2/

A birthday post thecynefin.co/and-here-i-a...

An epilogue to the Channel & the estuary series. "The Sirens do not threaten Odysseus with violence or deprivation. They offer him knowledge: sail past us, and you will be a wiser man. The seduction is epistemological before it is anything else" thecynefin.co?p=70342

Final post in the Channel and the Estuary post "The channel deals in propositions. The estuary deals in felt sense. Metaphor is the navigational instrument of the zone between the technology by which the unresolved can be held long enough to become knowledge." thecynefin.co/the-channel-...

Fourth post in the channel and the estuary series: "Colonial history is systematic dredging. Not metaphorically: structurally. The removal of language. The suppression of indigenous legal systems. The replacement of communal land tenure with individual title." thecynefin.co/the-channel-...

Third post in the Channel & the Estuary series, focused on the epigram: "People either survive in the jungle or exist in the zoo," through the lens of Richie's TV series, The Gentleman, although I think the phrase probably originated in a different form with Sonja. ` thecynefin.co/the-channel-...

Second post in the 'Channel and the Estuary' series: "The dangerous water was also the interesting water. This is the thing the channel cannot tell you, because the channel has no sign that says: here is what you are not seeing" thecynefin.co/the-channel-...

First full post in the Gangster series - the Channel & the Esuary - on the dangers of digitisation. thecynefin.co/the-channel-...

Introductory post to a five-part series, The Channel and the Estuary, on anthro-complexity, sensemaking: It argues that digitalisation, in its current form, is systematically removing those conditions This explains why I am using the gangster theme for the series thecynefin.co/the-channel-...

The first three posts in this series have been prosecutorial. In this final post in the series, I look at the counter culture of Just William, Good Omens, Granny Weatherwax/Tiffany, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Great, contrasting the meta-muggle wth the Wayshaper. thecynefin.co/every-step-i...

'Compositor Removed' is the third of what will now be four posts that express concern about how natural storytelling is changed by the imposition of frameworks (the organisational storytelling movement & the new Chief Storyteller role), mostly well-intentioned but... thecynefin.co/the-composit...

Yesterday, I posted on how we lost the Celtic & Romanian mythological traditions not to their enemies but to their admirers. By coincidence, I also went to two plays that made the same argument. Add in my despair at the Chief Story Officer fad and we have today's post thecynefin.co/the-plays-we...

Picking up from my earlier 'Flowers' post, what happens when the stories are kept but the grammar is changed? The full argument, including why Dumbledore had to die and what that reveals about a much older tradition and the modern age, is at the link below. thecynefin.co/are-we-wrong...

Spring Equinox brings a summary of all my blog posts since the Winter Solstice 2024. thecynefin.co/spring-equin...

Old wool, new fleece, the second post looking at the cybernetic residue. This is a substantial post covering HSD, OODA, Abductive Inference/Frison and the need to understand the epistemic landscape Boyd would have moved on from OODA and rejected Frison. thecynefin.co/mutton-dress...

Defining anthro-complexity vs Cybernetics (inc. HSD), the aim is to rewild Boyd's OODA loop. This first post sets the scene; tomorrow's, 'Old wool, new fleece' argues that Friston's cathedral is the kind of closed formal system Boyd built his epistemology to escape. thecynefin.co/a-lamb-in-wo...

I hesitated about posting this, but decided it needed to be said. As I make clear at the end, this is a post to name the territory, not to claim I know the way through it. I've made the point using a key story from the Mabinogi and it's retelling in 'The Owl Service' thecynefin.co/she-wants-to...