Review: Peak Everything: Waking Up to the Century of Declines

Excellent Primer, Narrowly Focused, Provokes Reflection October 16, 2009 Richard Heinberg I was tempted to limit this book to four stars because it fails to properly recognize, among many others, Buckminster Fuller, e.g. his Critical Path and it provides only passing reference to such foundation works as Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update and Human …

Review: The Design of Business–Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage

In Its Niche Beyond a Six–In Larger Context a Four October 11, 2009 Roger Martin First off, what got me to buy this book does not appear in the book at all–the author on record as saying that Wall Street was not designed to make money for its investors, only for its mandarins–the same is …

Journal: “Expert Judgement” vs. Public Intelligence

When one is brought up, professionally trained, in “systems thinking” and the importance of feedback loops, diversity, and integrity, everything else becomes pedestrian.  Today we highlight two books re-inventing the wheel so as to feature an extraordinarily useful but slighting incomplete oration on “expert judgement by our much-admired colleague at NIGHTWATCH, concluding with a list …

Journal: Chuck Spinny Flags Glenn Beck, Populist Rage is Rampant and Rightly So…

Chuck Spinney says: Even though OODA loops shaping nutty mass behaviour are becoming ever more disconnected from reality, Frank Rich shows this fact does not imply that the phenomenon of populist rage is not based on some real frustrations, grievances, anxieties, and fears.  CS The New York Times OP-ED COLUMNIST Even Glenn Beck Is Right …

Review: Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle

Potential Straw to Break the Camel’s Back September 19, 2009 Chris Hedges I disagree with those who dismiss this book, however erudite their claims. The author first impressed me with American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America. Reading this book on the heels of Grand Illusion: The Myth of Voter Choice in …

2009 Paul Ray New Emerging Culture in the USA

What we found very early on was that the values that predict well do not depend on personal psychology, but rather that they differ by three subcultures: Traditional, Modern and Trans-Modern. The latter are the Cultural Creative population, and this was the first research to show that ecology values and spiritual-psychological values made a difference …