Preparing for the Unthinkable (Video 5 minutes) Can Compression Thinking help navigate a future limited by resource shortages and ecological degradation? Such foreboding seems unthinkable. How can we defy our human instincts and learn to think about the unthinkable – and prepare for it? We react better to “unthinkable” disasters if we think about preparing […]
The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes – and Why by Amanda Ripley All the way through, Amanda Ripley’s book reminded this reviewer of the Boy Scout motto, “Be Prepared. And for what? For anything, of course. The expanded explanation is, “you are always in a state of readiness in mind and body to do […]
Ethical Asset Valuation and the Good Society (Kenneth J. Arrow Lecture Series) by Christian Gollier Christian Gollier is Vice President of the Toulouse School of Economics in France. He is a recognized scholar on the economics of climate change, having participated in a number of cross-disciplinary studies on that subject, and is regarded as an expert […]
Cycles of Evolution (Video 9 minutes) Cycles of Evolution Do human societies evolve in cycles similar to Punctuated Equilibrium in the biological theory of evolution? Or are they different? Here “punctuated” means “puncture,” a huge change, a new epoch greatly different from the old one. Punctuated Equilibrium holds that evolution of species was not a […]
J is for Junk Economics: A Guide to Reality in an Age of Deception by Michael Hudson Michael Hudson was a Wall Street analyst for years before turning academic – and turning against Wall Street. He’s lived in the dens of Wall Street and delved into economic history and philosophy. That gives him both Street […]
Ages of Discord: A Structural-Demographic Analysis of American History, by Peter Turchin Peter Turchin is Professor of Evolutionary Biology at the University of Connecticut, and a founder of “Cliodynamics,” mathematical modeling of long-term social processes. You could call it mathematical anthropology. He analyzes social changes going back millennia to compare them with social trends he […]
Building a Railroad: What is Progress? (Video 5 minutes) What Shall We Call Progress? Anthropologists have long noted that indigenous tribes live much more in the now than moderns. Consequently, their sense of time is much less acute, and their concepts of progress are minimal. On the other hand, they are acutely tuned to surrounding […]
A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things: A Guide to Capitalism, Nature, and the Future of the Planet by Raj Patel and Jason Moore A three-minute video blaring the theme of this book is the first video scrolling down Raj Patel’s home page. On the faculty of the University of Texas, Patel’s passion […]
Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs by Johann Hari Johann Hari’s book interested me for four reasons; the first is that the author is a very talented, but tarnished young British writer. He won a number of writing awards in his first job, political writing for the Independent […]
Coffee With Doc: Revolutionary Philosophy (Video 6 minutes) Constant Disruption: Continuous Adaptation Big environmental problems from every direction are hemming in high consumption economies and societies. We tend to nod in agreement before going on with the activities that consume our lives: messages to answer and mortgages to pay. But the flip side of economic […]
The Origins of Creativity by Edward O. Wilson E. O. Wilson is professor emeritus from Harvard, originally renowned as the world’s foremost expert on ants. He’s an entomologist, beyond that a naturalist, and beyond that a student of the human condition, still vibrant at the age of 88. We previously reviewed one of his recent […]
Coffee With Doc – Compression Thinking (Video 7 minutes) Compression Institute Founder Doc Hall and Filmmaker Ethan Berry talk about Compression Thinking. Business Uncertainty and Compression Thinking Ours is a time of great uncertainty, of life and of business. Future cash flows are at risk from many sources, the fickleness of markets being but one. […]
What We’re Reading, by Doc Hall: Wisdom Keeper: One Man’s Journey to Honor the Untold History of the Unangan People, by Ilarion “Larry” Merculieff Merculieff is now Elder at Large of the Tribes of Alaska. From the age of 4 his tribe, the Unanagan, marked him for that position, but his personal journey to fulfill […]
Leadership for Learning (Video 5 minutes) Vigorous Learning Organizations are Key. A Vigorous Learning Organization is one base of the program of the Compression Institute. The other is Compression Thinking. A Vigorous Learning Organization concentrates on internal development that is a stretch for companies, but all elements of it have been seen in action. If […]
Development Betrayed: The End of Progress and a Co-Evolutionary Revisioning of the Future, by Richard Norgaard This book was recommended by Craig Lindell, who is frequently on our teleconference calls. It turned out to be as good as Craig described. Richard Norgaard today is a biologist and climatologist on the Berkeley faculty, and a contributor […]
Doing Business Like Nature (Video 8 minutes). What Do We Mean by Compression? Compression is intended to expand our thinking dealing with the big squeeze on both us and the planet. There’s a dichotomy here: expand thinking; compress our use of resources – and much else. We use “compression” as an analogy in an uncommon […]
The Patterning Instinct: A Cultural History of Humanity’s Search for Meaning by Jeremy Lent. Jeremy Lent was founder and CEO of a software company in the Bay Area, and then become founder of the Liology Institute, seeking a way out of our environmental problems. The first part of The Patterning Instinct is a deep dive […]
Tribute to Loren Cole, Inquiring Systems Inc. (Video 4 minutes). Loren Cole’s Ecosystemological Principles. Loren Cole is probably the most accomplished environmental activist you have never heard of. Loren’s organization, Inquiring Systems, Inc. (ISI), is the fiscal sponsor for the Compression Institute and 109 other environmentally tilted groups. That means that Loren handles finances, legalities, […]
Implementation Aspects of an Ecosystems Approach, the Conservation of Natural Resources Program, University of California at Berkeley, 1969-1972; doctoral dissertation, by S. Loren Cole, 1975. Having peered into a number of doctoral dissertations, I began this one wondering how much caffeine would be consumed wading through it. To my surprise, Loren had a good turn […]
Lawn as Sanctuary (Video 5 minutes). Growing Grass. A century ago, John Maynard Keynes and other economic notables predicted that mechanical automation would soon let us all have a lot more free time. It hasn’t worked out that way. What happened? Grass is a good illustration. Centuries ago only the richest of royalty could afford […]
The Retreat of Western Liberalism by Edward Luce. Edward Luce is British, and currently the bureau chief for the Financial Times in Washington, DC, but his reporting is primarily political. Prior assignments around the world give Luce an international perspective, so the book threads through global politics. Its title captures its theme: The West and […]
Leadership of Learning (Video 5 minutes). Vigorous Learning: In a world of meaningless management clichés, any organizational leader will say that people in her organization are learning. But how fast and about what? Every failure is a learning experience. Since we don’t want that, surely absence of failure signifies a learning organization. Such circular reasoning […]
Scale: The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies by Geoffrey West. Geoffrey West is Distinguished Professor and the former President of the Santa Fe Institute. He is a theoretical physicist of note, but the book reveals his broad curiosity in many subjects. His […]
Coffee With Doc: Glocalization (Video 3.75 minutes). “Glocalization” is a hybrid word: global + local; implying global awareness and learning, but action at a local level. This term is uncommon, but not new. It describes many movements quietly trying to make a difference in world ecology by transforming what they do, where they are. One […]
