John Brodie Donald

John Brodie Donald
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    • Categorisation destroys informationThe act of categorising something removes it from its context and the loss of this contextual information can lead to major failure in the future – like the global financial crisis
    • Complexity requires simplicityA complex economy requires division of labour. The more specialised each individual becomes the more complexity can evolve in the group as a whole. Single cell organisms can only evolve into complex multicellular creatures if cells become specialised – each doing one particular simple task
    • Order requires ChaosOrder at a higher level requires disorder beneath it. This is the opposite of the maxim “as above, so below”. Functioning markets need robust disagreement between buyers and sellers. Market crashes only happen when everyone has the same (negative) opinion.
    • More of the same is differentA quantitative change becomes a qualitative change in the end. This is sometimes expressed as ‘quantity has a quality all its own’ or more simply ‘more of the same is different’
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More of the same is different

A quantitative change becomes a qualitative change in the end. This is sometimes expressed as ‘quantity has a quality all its own’ or more simply ‘more of the same is different’

More of the same is different

Intangible assets and the catataxic gap

The problem of intangible assets In 1988 Nestle bought Rowntree, the UK confectionary company famous for its fruit gums and jelly babies. It paid £2.5 bn which was three times more than the market thought it was worth. Nestle then had a big problem with its accounts. Traditionally, accountants would Read more…

By John Brodie Donald, 4 yearsNovember 8, 2018 ago
More of the same is different

Lynn Margulis and the eukaryotic cell

Fossils are not the whole story When you think of evolution what image first springs to mind? It’s probably a hall in the Natural History Museum filled with fossils. All the dinosaurs, trilobites, coelacanths and ammonites together make an awesome menagerie of extinct creatures. The stepping stones of evolution are Read more…

By John Brodie Donald, 4 yearsNovember 8, 2018 ago
More of the same is different

Costa Concordia: catataxic catastrophe

On the centenary of the Titanic disaster of 1912 another huge cruse ship sank. The Costa Concordia ran aground in January 2012 hitting a rock in the Tyrrhenian Sea. Although most of the passengers and crew were evacuated safely over a 6 hour period, 32 people died. There is a Read more…

By John Brodie Donald, 4 yearsOctober 30, 2018 ago
More of the same is different

The Catataxic baguette

One of the great joys of a holiday in France is the early morning trip to the boulangerie, in my case the Ti Ar Bara in Audierne. The baker has been up since 3.00am, working hard for your sybaritic pleasure. And what a true pleasure it is. As that gorgeous Read more…

By John Brodie Donald, 4 yearsOctober 27, 2018 ago
Recent Posts
  • Brexit and Arrow’s impossibility theorem
  • The law of large numbers and the meaning of life
  • Intangible assets and the catataxic gap
  • Lynn Margulis and the eukaryotic cell
  • Costa Concordia: catataxic catastrophe
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