Systemic Health: Reconnecting for Resilience and Belonging

The Story

Today's quotes brought this narrative forward.

Human systems—biological, social, and environmental—are held together by the flow of information and connection. As Donella Meadows highlights, the exchange of information is fundamental to how systems operate and evolve. When these flows are disrupted or misaligned, systems falter, revealing opportunities for intervention and growth.

Consider the connection between diet and health. Research into gut microbiomes, as reported by The New York Times, shows how individual choices, such as eating minimally processed foods, foster beneficial bacteria and support overall health. This small-scale system of inputs and outputs illustrates how seemingly minor adjustments can lead to profound shifts in outcomes, echoing the principles of systems thinking.

On a societal level, fostering resilience requires a similar approach: paying attention to the flows that sustain or undermine the system. As the IIED points out, “development as usual” fails to account for the interwoven risks of climate change. Only by mainstreaming climate resilience into development policies can countries reduce vulnerabilities and create sustainable pathways for growth.

However, these connections are not only practical but also deeply human. Erich Fromm reminds us that people gravitate toward connection—whether through religion, nationalism, or other shared systems of meaning—as a refuge from isolation. This drive to belong can either reinforce existing systems or inspire transformation when people seek more equitable ways to connect and thrive.

This insight resonates strongly in today’s world. An "epidemic" of loneliness is creating a void of connection that leaves individuals vulnerable to ideologies offering a sense of belonging, even when these ideologies reinforce harmful systems. As democratic backsliding and the rise of authoritarian leaders become more common, it becomes clear that isolation—both social and systemic—can foster a susceptibility to control. Authoritarianism often provides the illusion of unity and purpose, exploiting the human need for connection that Fromm describes.

In this context, strengthening systems of genuine connection—through equitable policies, resilient communities, and inclusive narratives—becomes not only a goal of governance but a bulwark against the isolation that fuels instability. By recognizing and addressing these vulnerabilities, we can rebuild systems that prioritize collective well-being over division, ensuring that the human need for connection fosters resilience rather than repression.

What can you do? 

Start by reconnecting with the people and organizations around you. Just as small dietary changes, like eating minimally processed foods, can improve your gut health, small social actions—joining local community groups, volunteering with grassroots organizations, or simply reaching out to neighbors—can improve the health of your social ecosystem. Building and nurturing these connections not only strengthens your personal sense of belonging but also contributes to a more resilient and inclusive society. These small steps ripple outward, helping to counter the forces of isolation and fostering systems of trust, collaboration, and shared purpose.

Quotes

"Many of the interconnections in systems operate through the flow of information. Information holds systems together and plays a great role in determining how they operate."
(Donella H. Meadows, Thinking in Systems)

"People who tended to eat minimally processed foods like vegetables, nuts, eggs and seafood were more likely to harbor beneficial gut bacteria."
(nytimes.com, How the Right Foods May Lead to a Healthier Gut, and Better Health)

"The most valuable lesson I’ve learned as a journalist is that everybody is interesting if you ask the right questions. If someone is dull or uninteresting, it’s on you."
(Kate Murphy, You're Not Listening)

"Meanwhile, there is growing consensus that ‘development as usual’ isn’t working: unless climate resilience is mainstreamed into development programmes and policies, countries risk increasing their vulnerability to climate change."
(iied.org, Framework Guides Local Governments Towards People-Led Climate-Resilient Development)

"Instead, for subordinates, the rejection of their society’s ideologies of subordination and even of the whole society may be necessary in order to facilitate positive group identity."
(Jim Sidanius and Felicia Pratto, Social Dominance)

"Religion and nationalism, as well as any custom and any belief however absurd and degrading, if it only connects the individual with others, are refuges from what man most dreads: isolation."
(Erich Fromm, Escape From Freedom)

First week of 2025 or last week of 2024

A warped view of an untidy street corner in Cape Town, S.A.

So, here’s the question: is this the first week of 2025 or the last week of 2024? It really depends on how you think about weeks, what day your week starts on, or simply how you choose to look at it. Since these are all just human conventions—and ultimately meaningless—the decision is up to you. Of course, we do have to coexist and interact with one another, but in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t really matter. It’s a very minor point.

In other words, this is a lot of words to say almost nothing. But hey, it’s the beginning of a new year!

Today, I came across only one quote in my Readwise feed that stood out to me, which you’ll find below. As you can probably tell, I’m feeling especially creative today (not).

Quote

"People believed the workingman was getting shafted, and they seethed. Perceived societal breaks for minorities made the frustrated white guys of my world crazy." (Alfred Lubrano, Limbo)

Quotes – December 29

 Let's see. Spend time writing about these quotes, or go for a run and a hike.

No competition.

Quotes

"One thing you may have noticed in the goals, is that they are more focused on routine and habits, than they are on outcomes." (cultivatedmanagement.com, Are You Chasing the Right Things? How to Paint a Picture for Your Life and Set Goals - Cultivated Management)

"foreign aid, even if given for purely humanitarian reasons, is political by nature precisely because it is not motivated by the search for profit." (Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism)

"(3) Human social systems are subject to the counterbalancing influences of hierarchy-enhancing (HE) forces, producing and maintaining ever higher levels of group-based social inequality, and hierarchy-attenuating (HA) forces, producing greater levels of group-based social equality." (Jim Sidanius and Felicia Pratto, Social Dominance)

"It is following these periods of crisis that institutions and the connections between them are most open to dramatic transformation." (Brian Walker PhD, Resilience Thinking)

"Her story — that of an uneducated, unskilled woman from farm roots who can’t find high-paying work in the city and falls deeper into poverty — is a familiar one, the classic pattern of in-country migration all around the world." (Abrahm Lustgarten, The Great Climate Migration Has Begun)

"There is a saying that the world is divided into people who think they are right." (Tara Brach, Radical Acceptance)

Systems Quotes

"One new area of investigation, for example, is how to understand and deal with multiple thresholds that occur at different scales in the ecological and social domains of linked systems, and which give rise to cascading regime shifts." (Brian Walker PhD, Resilience Thinking)

"The speed and magnitude of directional change, environmental and social, are now such that what is needed is continual transformational change in human-dominated systems." (Brian Walker, David Salt, Resilience Practice)

"In this sense, systems thinking is a disciplined approach for examining problems more completely and accurately before acting. It allows us to ask better questions before jumping to conclusions.

Systems thinking often involves moving from observing events or data, to identifying patterns of behavior overtime, to surfacing the underlying structures that drive those events and patterns. By understanding and changing structures that are not serving us well (including our mental models and perceptions), we can expand the choices available to us and create more satisfying, long-term solutions to chronic problems." (thesystemsthinker.com, Systems Thinking: What, Why, When, Where, and How? - The Systems Thinker)

Power and the Role of Individuals in Navigating, Perpetuating, or Resisting Systemic Forces

The Power of the Individual in Systemic Forces

Societies are shaped by systems of power that influence how we think, act, and respond to challenges. Whether in governance, communication, or resilience, understanding the interplay between systemic forces and individual actions is essential. The insights from today’s quotes (see quotes below) provide a lens through which we can explore this dynamic.

Fascism and the Subtlety of Complicity

Robert O. Paxton, in The Anatomy of Fascism, emphasizes the importance of digging down to the level of ordinary people to understand how fascist regimes operate. “To understand fully how fascist regimes worked, we must dig down to the level of ordinary people and examine the banal choices they made in their daily routines.” These “banal choices” often seem insignificant—accepting a lesser evil, averting one’s gaze—but cumulatively, they enable monstrous outcomes.

This observation underscores a central truth: systemic forces thrive on the inertia of everyday actions. Fascist regimes, for example, depend on the demonization of an enemy to mobilize followers. Paxton writes, “Fascists need a demonized enemy against which to mobilize followers, but of course the enemy does not have to be Jewish. Each culture specifies the national enemy.” Recognizing this dynamic challenges us to question the narratives we unconsciously accept and the choices we make in response.

Communication and the Power of Concreteness

In Made to Stick, Chip and Dan Heath remind us of the importance of concrete language: “Concrete language helps people, especially novices, understand new concepts. Abstraction is the luxury of the expert.” This insight is critical when resisting systemic forces, as clarity can break through the fog of misinformation and propaganda that often sustains oppressive systems.

Concreteness is not just a teaching tool—it is a strategy of empowerment. When individuals are equipped with clear, actionable knowledge, they are better positioned to navigate and resist systemic pressures. Abstraction may serve experts, but for systems to change, ideas must resonate with those most affected by them.

Listening as Resistance

In a world that often prioritizes self-promotion, Kate Murphy’s reflection in You're Not Listening feels like a call to action: “In a culture infused with existential angst and aggressive personal marketing, to be silent is to fall behind.” Yet, listening can be a radical act. It shifts the focus from advancing one's agenda to understanding others’ realities.

Listening deeply—to voices marginalized by systemic forces, to ideas challenging the status quo—is a form of resistance. It is a way to question who holds power and to amplify perspectives that might otherwise be ignored.

Systems Thinking and the Critical Role of Transitions

Systems thinkers like Brian Walker and Bob Williams highlight the importance of examining moments of transition within systems. While Walker focuses on the 'back loop' periods—those brief, chaotic moments ripe for change—Williams brings attention to the role of power and decision-making within these transitions, particularly in determining what is prioritized or neglected within a system. Walker writes about the “back loop” periods—brief, chaotic moments where systems are ripe for change. “Almost no research has been done on systems in their brief, chaotic, but critically important back loop periods,” he notes in Resilience Practice.

Brian Walker and David Salt, in their exploration of resilience and systems thinking, delve into the intricate dynamics of change within linked ecological and social systems. They observe, “One new area of investigation, for example, is how to understand and deal with multiple thresholds that occur at different scales in the ecological and social domains of linked systems, and which give rise to cascading regime shifts.” These cascading shifts often emerge during transitional moments, providing individuals with unique opportunities to shape systemic outcomes. By identifying and understanding thresholds—those pivotal points where small actions can trigger significant changes—we can better navigate these critical periods and drive meaningful change.

The Question of Power

Finally, the issue of power is central to systems thinking. Williams and Hummelbrunner write in Systems Concepts in Action, “Systems thinkers began to question who makes those decisions of what is ‘in’ and what is ‘out’; the systems field formally started to address the issue of power.” Power shapes the boundaries of systems, determining which voices are heard and which are silenced.

As individuals, we must recognize where we hold power and where we can challenge its misuse. Whether through rejecting harmful narratives, using clear and concrete communication, or seizing moments of systemic transition, our actions matter.

The Cumulative Power of Individual Actions

Power operates at multiple levels—in regimes, systems, and individual choices. By understanding how systemic forces work and where individuals fit within them, we can navigate, perpetuate, or resist these forces more effectively. The challenge lies in recognizing the role we play in shaping outcomes, whether through what we accept, what we question, or what we choose to change. Even the most entrenched systems rely on the cumulative actions of individuals, and therein lies the potential for transformation. What one step will you take, no matter how small, to resist?

Quotes

"Fascists need a demonized enemy against which to mobilize followers, but of course the enemy does not have to be Jewish. Each culture specifies the national enemy."
(Robert O. Paxton, The Anatomy of Fascism)

"Concrete language helps people, especially novices, understand new concepts. Abstraction is the luxury of the expert. If you’ve got to teach an idea to a room full of people, and you aren’t certain what they know, concreteness is the only safe language."
(Chip Heath, Dan Heath, Made to Stick)

"To understand fully how fascist regimes worked, we must dig down to the level of ordinary people and examine the banal choices they made in their daily routines. Making such choices meant accepting an apparent lesser evil or averting the eyes from some excesses that seemed not too damaging in the short term, even acceptable piecemeal, but which cumulatively added up to monstrous end results."
(Robert O. Paxton, The Anatomy of Fascism)

"In a culture infused with existential angst and aggressive personal marketing, to be silent is to fall behind. To listen is to miss an opportunity to advance your brand and make your mark."
(Kate Murphy, You're Not Listening)

"Almost no research has been done on systems in their brief, chaotic, but critically important back loop periods."
(Brian Walker, David Salt, Resilience Practice)

"One new area of investigation, for example, is how to understand and deal with multiple thresholds that occur at different scales in the ecological and social domains of linked systems, and which give rise to cascading regime shifts."
(Brian Walker PhD, Resilience Thinking)

"systems thinkers began to question who makes those decisions of what is “in” and what is “out”; the systems field formally started to address the issue of power."
(Bob Williams, Richard Hummelbrunner, Systems Concepts in Action)

"In terms of the adaptive cycle (see chapter 4), this is classic K phase behavior in which we are increasingly locked into being more efficient with fewer strategies."
(Brian Walker PhD, Resilience Thinking)

Quotes for December 27, 2024

Nothing really to add today to these quotes I'm sure that we could painfully go through some process to find how they connect with one another and it would seem sharp and wise and the lake and I don't, or I shouldn't dismiss such fun work when it is being channeled. But right now that's not where my mind is.

*Update: I am being lazy. In adding labels/tags to this post I realized how much they have in common. To some degree. each quote weaves together insights into how we interact, make decisions, and share power, knowledge, and communication within societies. Together, they form a tapestry of ideas that challenge us to think about structures of democracy and how they lead to equity, collaboration, and resilience.

Quotes

"There can be no creative power without some acknowledgment of the other’s interests, just as there can be no healthy love if the self is wholly lost in concern for the other."
(Adam Kahane, Power and Love)

"According to the neoconservative position, because private firms are more subject to free market forces than are public firms and government agencies, one should expect less employment discrimination within the private sector than within the public sector. However, the empirical evidence offers no support whatsoever for this reasoning. As a matter of fact, whenever employment audits have been used to compare the discriminatory behavior of private versus public firms, private firms have been consistently found to display substantially higher rates of employment discrimination than public firms."
(Jim Sidanius and Felicia Pratto, Social Dominance)

"“if we (humanity) don’t find ways to become more comfortable with uncertainty, we have a big problem. Because it means that anyone who promises certainty will always have a following.”"
(Sonja Blignaut, Reconnecting With the Spirit of Exploration)

"Therefore, the behavior of complex adaptive systems is determined by both their internal structure and contextual relations. Change can be induced from the outside, but these contextual influences do not result in uniform, predictable output; as these external perturbations are ambivalent, they can be both disturbing and the source of further development. They are modified and rearranged in line with the system's internal state and structure. The resulting behavior can be explained neither by the external influences on the system nor by its internal states alone, but through the interaction of both. So having trust in self-organization is about paying attention for emerging patterns and responding to them."
(Bob Williams, Richard Hummelbrunner, Systems Concepts in Action)

"Abstraction makes it harder to understand an idea and to remember it. It also makes it harder to coordinate our activities with others, who may interpret the abstraction in very different ways. Concreteness helps us avoid these problems. This is perhaps the most important lesson that Aesop can teach us."
(Chip Heath, Dan Heath, Made to Stick)

"Far better than being first, Tellis and Golder concluded, is being what some have called a “fast second”: an agile imitator."
(Annie Murphy Paul, The Extended Mind)

Power, Knowledge, and the Radical Act of Resolve

Together, these quotes explore how systems of power use tools like confiscation, rhetoric, and cynicism to
maintain themselves, and how disrupting these systems requires critical awareness (of power's mechanisms) and a refusal to succumb to despair—actively reclaiming agency and insisting on change.

Quotes

"Once in power, fascist regimes confiscated property only from political opponents, foreigners, or Jews."
(Robert O. Paxton, The Anatomy of Fascism)

"Because power is knowledge, and power above all else seeks to sustain itself, we can see that the rhetoric around development knowledge—‘like light’—is not just optimistic but also clearly wildly inaccurate."
(Ben Ramalingam, Aid on the Edge of Chaos)

"Optimism is a political act. Those who benefit from the status quo are perfectly happy with a large population of people who think nothing is going to get any better. In fact, these days, cynicism is obedience. What’s really radical is being willing to look right at the magnitude and difficulty of the problems we face and still insist that we can solve those problems."
(Sam Daley-Harris  Jan. 16, Transformational Advocacy and the Disobedient Self)

Seeing the Mountain, Mapping the Path: Reflections on Systems, Selves, and Belonging

In the rush of daily life, it’s easy to fixate on immediate details and lose sight of the larger forces shaping our journey. Yet, as Dan Harris reminds us, the emotions we feel—anger, jealousy, fear—are not who we are. They’re passing states, signals to notice but not cling to. Daniel Levitin builds on this idea, highlighting the need to toggle between the work at hand and the broader vision we hold, much like a driver watching both the road and the distant mountain to stay on course.

This balance between the granular and the expansive echoes in other domains. Systems thinking teaches us that clarity begins with seeing the whole picture: the components, their relationships, and the invisible assumptions that shape them. Donella Meadows calls these paradigmatic assumptions the deepest leverage points for change—embedded ideas so pervasive they often go unnoticed, yet profoundly influence how we live and interact with the world.

But systems are not just abstract constructs; they are also deeply personal. Our longing to belong, as Brené Brown points out, can either ground us in authentic connection or drive us into hollow patterns of approval-seeking. This same tension applies to our relationships with others. Freddie deBoer reminds us that human connection is one of life’s greatest glories, but it requires discernment—not every connection will nurture us.

These reflections converge on a simple but powerful truth: to navigate both personal and systemic challenges, we need the courage to pause, the perspective to map our course, and the wisdom to question what we take for granted. Only then can we see clearly—not just the mountain in the distance, but the path that leads us there.

"The final step—“non-identification”—meant seeing that just because I was feeling angry or jealous or fearful, that did not render me a permanently angry or jealous person. These were just passing states of mind." (Dan Harris, 10% Happier)

"In many tasks, whether creative or mundane, we often need to shift back and forth between working and evaluating, comparing the ideal image in our minds with the actual work in front of us." (Daniel J. Levitin, The Organized Mind)

This idea can also be expressed as the need to step back from the details and focus on the bigger picture. If we remain too caught up in the details, we risk drifting away from our ultimate goal. As mentioned in this morning's Dhammatalk: when driving toward a mountain, you spend most of your time watching the road ahead, but you also keep track of the mountain to ensure you stay on course toward your destination.

"The Water Resilience Assessment Framework consists of four key steps: visualizing the system; developing a resilience strategy; testing the resilience strategy; and evaluating." (Home, Water Resilience Assessment Framework — Alliance for Global Water Adaptation)

The first step, visualizing the system, may sound straightforward or even casual, but it actually involves a significant amount of effort. It is valuable and essential work—but still, work. There are many ways to visualize a system, but one of the most effective methods is through a simple relationship map. This map identifies the components of the system and clarifies their relationships using drawn lines and minimal text. While these maps can become quite complex—evolving into causal loop diagrams or stock-and-flow models—keeping them simple has its own benefits. Simpler maps serve as valuable tools for pausing and reflecting. They help you stay oriented and focused on your "mountain," the ultimate destination you are striving toward.

Donella Meadows refers to "paradigmatic assumptions"—or mindsets—as the most powerful leverage points for systemic change. However, these assumptions are also the most difficult to recognize because they are deeply embedded in our core operating frameworks, almost like our mental "firmware."

For example: Money measures something real and has real meaning (therefore, people who are paid less are literally worth less). Growth is good. Nature is a stock of resources to be converted for human purposes. Evolution stopped with the emergence of Homo sapiens. One can “own” land. These are just a few of the paradigmatic assumptions prevalent in our current culture. Interestingly, many of these ideas have left other cultures utterly baffled, as they did not find such assumptions to be obvious in the slightest. (donellameadows.org, Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System)

"The truth is that while the glory of human life is found in other people, you must actively seek them out, discovering shared values and compatible beliefs." (Freddie deBoer, There Is No Such Thing as an Identity)

This is true—the potential for this glory exists in all people, and much of it comes from resonance, the deep connection we feel with others. However, some people can be like hungry ghosts: endlessly searching, consuming, and taking more than they can give. Therefore, it’s important to not only find resonance but also to recognize and avoid those who drain rather than nurture that connection.

And Brené Brown provides insight into what might underlie some of the behaviors of hungry ghosts—the almost insatiable desire to "belong."

"Belonging is the innate human desire to be part of something larger than us. Because this yearning is so primal, we often try to acquire it by fitting in and by seeking approval, which are not only hollow substitutes for belonging, but often barriers to it. Because true belonging only happens when we present our authentic, imperfect selves to the world, our sense of belonging can never be greater than our level of self-acceptance." (Brené Brown, Braving the Wilderness)

This deep longing to belong can sometimes drive people into patterns of endless searching and consuming, where they seek external validation rather than cultivating a grounded sense of self. In this way, the hungry ghost's endless hunger may stem from a lack of true self-acceptance—a barrier to authentic belonging.

Unpacking Power: The Evolving Concepts of Power-over, Power-to, and Power-with

Photo by Guille Álvarez on Unsplash

The article "The New Concepts of Power? Power-over, Power-to, and Power-with" by Pamela Pansardi and Marianna Bindi provides a comprehensive review of the evolving interpretations of power within political and social theory. The authors outline the distinctions among three key types of power:

1. Power-over: Defined as an asymmetrical relationship, often associated with domination and coercion. It involves one actor or group exerting control or influence over another.

2. Power-to: Refers to the individual or collective capacity to achieve specific outcomes or goals. It is frequently tied to notions of empowerment and agency.

3. 
   Power-with: Emphasizes collaborative and collective action aimed at shared goals, reflecting solidarity and joint agency.

The article traces the historical and theoretical roots of these concepts, referencing foundational contributions from thinkers like Mary Parker Follett, Hannah Arendt, and Hanna Pitkin. It highlights the application of these power dynamics across various disciplines, including feminist theory, development studies, and environmental politics.

The authors note ongoing debates about the normative implications of these forms of power. While some scholars frame power-over as inherently negative (domination), others argue that it can be neutral or even beneficial when it enables power-to or collective agency (power-with). Similarly, power-to and power-with are often associated with positive values like emancipation and collaboration, though their specific definitions vary across contexts.

The article concludes by emphasizing that these concepts have crystallized into distinct frameworks for understanding power, reflecting broader shifts in scholarly discourse. Despite their growing institutionalization, debates about their interrelations and normative significance persist, underscoring the complexity of power dynamics in theory and practice.

The Art of Finding Meaning and Connection in a Transient, Borderless World

These quotes together encourage us to seek joy and resilience not in permanence or possessions but in shared experiences, deep relationships, and the courage to fully engage in the cycles of life.

Photo by Thorium

Quotes

"Happiness doesn’t rise when you buy stuff, but rather when you use your money to pay for memorable experiences or time with people you love, or when you give it away to causes you care about."
(Arthur C. Brooks, Why You’re Better Off Not Borrowing)

"greenhouse gasses neither recognize nor adapt to borders. Likewise, the effects of climate change do not respect lines on a map."
(washingtonpost.com, Opinion | What Canada’s Carbon Pricing Ruling Says About the Global Struggle Against Climate Change)

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again…who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly."
(Theodore Roosevelt)

"Love goes very far beyond the physical person of the beloved. It finds its deepest meaning in his spiritual being, his inner self. Whether or not he is actually present, whether or not he is still alive at all, ceases somehow to be of importance."
(Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning)

"With the loss of them there follows uncertainty, and with uncertainty, disequilibrium, since life, as both Nietzsche and Ibsen knew, requires life-supporting illusions; and where these have been dispelled, there is nothing secure to hold on to, no moral law, nothing firm."
(Joseph Campbell, Myths to Live By)

"Teams need to believe that their work is important. Teams need to feel their work is personally meaningful. Teams need clear goals and defined roles. Team members need to know they can depend on one another. But, most important, teams need psychological safety."
(Charles Duhigg, Smarter Faster Better)

"Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing. We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don't really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It's just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy."
(Pema Chodron, When Things Fall Apart)

Shape-Shifting Robots?

Researchers have developed miniature, shape-shifting machines capable of transitioning between solid and liquid states using magnetic fields. These devices, inspired by sea cucumbers' ability to change stiffness, leverage gallium, a metal that melts slightly above room temperature. Magnetic particles embedded in the gallium enable remote control of its movements and phase transitions.

Key advancements include:

1. Material Properties: The gallium melts when exposed to an alternating magnetic field and resolidifies at room temperature. Permanent magnets manipulate its movement in both solid and liquid forms.
2. Capabilities: The material can carry heavy loads (10,000 times its weight), stretch, split, merge, and flow through tight spaces.
3. Demonstrations: Examples include a toy figure escaping a jail cell by melting and reforming, and a device removing a ball from a model human stomach by enveloping and extracting it.
4. Applications: The material shows promise in tasks like soldering and potential biomedical uses. However, adjustments are needed to make it viable in the human body by raising its melting point with additional metals like bismuth and tin.

While the innovation represents a significant leap in soft robotics, challenges remain in precise control within biomedical contexts. Future advancements may involve integrating this material with others for broader applications.

These shape-shifting devices melt and re-form thanks to magnetic fields

Gallium plus magnetism equals something straight out of Terminator 2

Link

Quotes for December 22, 2024

Today's Quotes

Ben Ramalingam, Aid on the Edge of Chaos

"simplicity is repeatedly, consistently, and damagingly chosen over relevance and appropriateness." (Ben

Ramalingam, Aid on the Edge of Chaos)

Ben Ramalingam's quote highlights a critical flaw in decision-making, where the allure of simplicity often overrides the necessity for context-specific and nuanced solutions—especially relevant in addressing the complexity of global aid and development challenges.

Donella H. Meadows, Thinking in Systems

"The behavior of a system cannot be known just by knowing the elements of which the system is made." (Donella H. Meadows, Thinking in Systems)

Donella H. Meadows reminds us of the emergent nature of systems, where the whole transcends the sum of its parts. This perspective urges us to look beyond components to understand relationships and dynamics.

Tara Brach, Radical Acceptance

"For so many of us, feelings of deficiency are right around the corner. It doesn’t take much—just hearing of someone else’s accomplishments, being criticized, getting into an argument, making a mistake at work—to make us feel that we are not okay." (Tara Brach, Radical Acceptance)

Tara Brach captures a universal human struggle—our vulnerability to feelings of inadequacy. Her insight encourages self-compassion and awareness of how external stimuli can shape our self-perception.

Robin Leichenko and Karen O'Brien, Environmental Change and Globalization

"recent economic research shows that "ceteris paribus, the more egalitarian a society, the better its growth record and growth potential" (Sanchez 2003," (Robin Leichenko and Karen O'Brien, Environmental Change and Globalization)

Robin Leichenko and Karen O'Brien provide a powerful argument for equity, reinforcing that societal structures fostering egalitarianism are not just moral imperatives but also drivers of sustainable economic growth.

Chip Heath, Dan Heath, Made to Stick

"This is the Curse of Knowledge. Once we know something, we find it hard to imagine what it was like not to know it. Our knowledge has “cursed” us. And it becomes difficult for us to share our knowledge with others, because we can’t readily re-create our listeners’ state of mind." (Chip Heath, Dan Heath, Made to Stick)

Chip and Dan Heath underline the "Curse of Knowledge," a cognitive bias that complicates communication. Recognizing this bias is essential for effective teaching, leadership, and collaboration.

Planning When It Doesn’t Come Naturally: Neuroscience-Backed Strategies for Success

The article A Way to Plan If You’re Bad at Planning by Elizabeth Grace Saunders in Harvard Business Review explores how individuals can develop planning skills, even if their brains are not naturally wired for it. Saunders uses insights from neuroscience to explain why some people struggle with planning and offers practical strategies to improve.

Key Points:

1. Brain Dominance and Planning:

   • People with back-left brain dominance find planning easier as their brains are naturally wired for linear thinking.
   • Others must exert significantly more effort to plan, as their brain's neurochemistry makes it less natural for them.

2. Understanding and Accepting Difficulty:

   • Recognizing personal strengths and weaknesses through self-assessments (e.g., from Thriving in Mind by Dr. Katherine Benziger) helps set realistic expectations. 
   • Address the challenge from a position of strength. Know that normative expectations around the capacity to plan can restrict society's ability to fully access the broader ecosystem of awareness and knowledge.
   • Accepting that planning is challenging can reduce frustration and build resilience.

3. Overcoming All-or-Nothing Thinking:

   • Avoid perfectionism in planning. Progress, rather than perfection, is the goal.
   • Flexibility in adapting plans fosters consistency and reduces self-criticism.

4. Adapting Systems to Individual Styles:

   • Tailor planning tools to personal preferences:
     • Visual thinkers might use sticky notes or mind maps.
     • Spreadsheet enthusiasts could use Excel or numeric-based apps.
     • People who think in terms of flow may prefer adaptable paper lists.

5. Seeking External Support:

   • Collaborate with organized individuals for advice or borrow their planning systems.
   • Avoid overly critical feedback and focus on practical, beginner-friendly solutions.

6. Building Resilience Through Practice:

   • Planning skills improve through persistence and self-compassion.
   • Adjust plans as needed, embrace mistakes as learning opportunities, and focus on small improvements over time.

By understanding the neurological basis for planning challenges and adopting tailored strategies, individuals can enhance their ability to organize time effectively and build resilience in the process.

James Gray's film: Armageddon Time

James Gray's film Armageddon Time reflects on his childhood in 1980s New York, exploring themes of memory, class, and privilege. The story follows a young boy named Paul Graff and his struggles with family and school, set against a backdrop of significant political changes. Gray sees parallels between his past and today's polarized society, warning of the dangers of losing integrity in a transactional world.

James Gray’s Vision of American Dysfunction

Why Putting Down Your Phone Builds Trust

 The study "Smartphones undermine trust and cooperation" by N. P. Li and colleagues, published in the journal Social Networks, investigates how smartphone use during social interactions affects trust and cooperation. Through a series of experiments, the researchers found that individuals who used smartphones during face-to-face interactions were perceived as less trustworthy and were less likely to engage in cooperative behavior compared to those who did not use their phones. The findings suggest that smartphone use can negatively impact the quality of social interactions by reducing trust and willingness to cooperate. The authors recommend minimizing smartphone use during social engagements to foster better interpersonal relationships.

News Item: We’re Trusted More When We Put Down Our Phones

Academic journal article: Smartphone use decreases trustworthiness of strangers

Dancing with Systems: Navigating Complexity for Transformative Change

These systems quotes collectively emphasize the importance of understanding systemic behavior (e.g., delays, nested dynamics, resistance), embracing ambiguity, and fostering iterative learning. They advocate for a perspective that balances analysis with action, recognizing that transformative change requires navigating complexity with vision, adaptability, and respect for the interconnected nature of systems. 

Photo by Alina Grubnyak 

Systems Quotes

"Delays are pervasive in systems, and they are strong determinants of behavior. Changing the length of a delay may (or may not, depending on the type of delay and the relative lengths of other delays) make a large change in the behavior of a system."
–Donella H. Meadows, Thinking in Systems

"Such challenges are often inhibited by individual and organizational ‘defensive routines’, firmly entrenched in minds, setting cognitive and social limits on learning."
–Ben Ramalingam, Aid on the Edge of Chaos

"Defensive routines" is an important concept when it comes to understanding how learning can be inhibited, both individually and organizationally. These routines, as Ben Ramalingam describes in Aid on the Edge of Chaos, are deeply ingrained patterns of thinking and behavior that create cognitive and social barriers to learning.

This idea also reminds me of something I recently came across about organizations exhibiting an "immune response" to resist change efforts. It seems closely related, as both highlight the instinctive resistance to disruption or transformation within systems.

"to date there is a lack of studies that bridge the divide between small case-based interventions and global systems at broader scales, and the complex interactions across scales and processes. This paper works with a leverage points framework to consider systems transformation. It focuses on four individual sustainability interventions in the textile sector and explores how they are embedded within a complex set of nested systems, and how these connected systems shape the transformative potential of the interventions."
–link.springer.com, Processes of Sustainability Transformation Across Systems Scales: Leveraging Systemic Change in the Textile Sector - Sustainability Science

"Understanding processes of systems change therefore requires us to ‘dance with systems’ (Meadows 2001), meaning to learn from and engage with systems through dynamic, rather than static, perspectives, with passion and vision, to understand their functions or purposes and connections, and see how our values and the system properties may interact (Meadows 2011; Constable et al. 2019)."
–link.springer.com, Processes of Sustainability Transformation Across Systems Scales: Leveraging Systemic Change in the Textile Sector - Sustainability Science

The Strata: A story of dystopian wealth

 

Over ten years ago, when I was living in Bangkok, a story idea—or at least the premise of one—began forming in my mind. It’s a dystopian, quasi-sci-fi narrative set in a future that blends darkness with a veneer of promise. I call it dystopian because, in many ways, the world it depicts is bleak. However, there are also elements that seem bright and hopeful—or at least appear that way on the surface. In this future, the wealthy will lead incredibly privileged lives, but the poor will suffer even more in relative terms than they do today.

The idea revolves around a vision of a city with multiple levels, each offering a very different quality of life. This concept was inspired by my time in Bangkok, where I noticed the contrast between life at street level and life on the elevated walkways, especially downtown beneath the Skytrain (BTS). On the elevated walkways, it was often easier to walk—fewer vendors, fewer crowds—creating a distinct divide between the two levels of the city.

I imagined a futuristic city with many such layers, where people could move between them depending on their means. Each level would come with a cost, perhaps charging a small number of credits per kilometer to use. The lowest, "free" level would be the street level, but with the effects of climate change, it would likely be wetter, prone to flooding during high tides, and increasingly neglected. Over time, it might become grimy, dangerous, and difficult to traverse, as there would be no resources allocated for its upkeep. Life at this level would be a struggle, while the higher levels offered more comfort and security—at a price.

Future NYC

Imagine a futuristic New York City transformed by rising sea levels, where the lower parts of Manhattan are permanently submerged, and midtown experiences regular flooding during high tides. The city has adapted with a vertical design: a complex, layered infrastructure of roads and pathways at multiple heights. The lowest layers are accessible only by boats, creating a canal-like environment reminiscent of Venice, but shadowed by towering structures above.

Higher levels consist of elevated roads and platforms, reserved for those who can afford escalating fees. The wealthiest live and travel at the uppermost layers, enjoying cleaner air, sunlight, and exclusive amenities. Meanwhile, the poorest are confined to the damp, shadowed lower levels, enduring daily flooding and limited resources. Access to higher levels becomes a stark representation of privilege, with each ascending tier symbolizing increased wealth and power.

This cityscape embodies a stark socioeconomic divide, with verticality serving as both a literal and metaphorical representation of inequality. Describe this multi-scale, multi-height city, where every layer tells a story of adaptation, ingenuity, and disparity in the face of climate change.

Quotes for December 20, 2024

Greetings from "The West" - That is Western USA. It is December 20, 2024 and we here in the Northern Hemisphere are near the nadir of daylight hours. Hence, the pagan "season of lights" where trees are brought into the home.

The common theme in today's quotes is that we can achieve better results by working with our natural ways of thinking and feeling, rather than resisting them. This applies to using systems to solve problems (such as structured approaches to behavior or problem-solving), rethinking emotions like anxiety, or recognizing how our mindset influences decisions. The key is to accept and utilize our natural tendencies to create positive changes or manage challenges more effectively.

Quotes

"The Fundamental Attribution Error is the reason why we love TV shows like The Dog Whisperer or Supernanny, in which seemingly irredeemable dogs and kids are tamed by outsiders who come in with a new system of discipline."
–Chip Heath and Dan Heath, Switch

"It may sound counterintuitive, but telling yourself to be less anxious is “a signal to your brain to focus on anxiety more,” Dr. Galanti said. Having some anxiety is part of being human — so it is fruitless to try to banish the feeling entirely. “It’s more like, ‘If I feel anxious, then what?’” she added. So rather than focusing on your anxiety, think instead about the personal traits that you value."
–Christina Caron, New Year’s Resolutions for the Anxious

"These results are shocking. The mere act of calculation reduced people’s charity. Once we put on our analytical hat, we react to emotional appeals differently. We hinder our ability to feel."
–Chip Heath, Dan Heath, Made to Stick

Photo by Shelby Taylor Thorn 

Quotes for December 19, 2024

Reflections on Four Powerful Quotes

"Finally, new scientific evidence like last year’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report reveals that the impacts of climate change are leading to more devastating consequences sooner than anticipated, reinforcing the urgent need to curb emissions, drive adaptation and significantly increase financing for both."
–WRI.org, Next-Generation Climate Targets: A 5-Point Plan for NDCs

This quote resonates deeply because it’s grounded in an unflinching fact: the impacts of climate change are accelerating beyond expectations. The sooner we face this reality head-on, the sooner we can chart a path toward growth and resilience. Ignoring these truths is like squandering the legacy of our ancestors—the gifts of stability, resources, and opportunity they worked so hard to secure. We owe it to future generations to act decisively and stop living off borrowed time.

"He’s nothing. No substance. But having him there, the latest in a two-and-a-half-century-long line of American Presidents make people feel that the country, the culture that they grew up with is still here—that we’ll get through these bad times and back to normal.”
–Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Sower

Written in the early ’90s, Butler’s words feel eerily prescient today. They capture a dangerous illusion—that a figurehead, a symbol of stability, can somehow return us to “normal.” Denial won’t solve our problems. Pretending everything is fine or that we just need a strong leader to set things right is a recipe for failure. This is a time that demands clarity of thought and responsibility, not the dangerous mix of performative politics and authoritarian impulses that dominate our era. True leadership must be forward-thinking, rooted in care for generations to come.

"Because we are afraid of being embarrassed or hurt, we hold back our openness and our love."
–Adam Kahane, Power and Love

Kahane’s words remind us that true courage lies in vulnerability. Fear often holds us back—whether it’s the fear of failure, rejection, or looking foolish. But only by embracing openness and love, even in the face of potential pain, can we foster the connections and progress that truly matter.

"We construct our beliefs, mostly unconsciously, and thereafter they hold us captive. They can help us focus and make us more effective, but sadly, they also can limit us: they blind us to possibility and subject us to fog, fear, and doubt."
–Dave Gray, Liminal Thinking

Gray insightfully points out how the very beliefs we construct to navigate the world can also trap us. They provide structure but can also blind us to new possibilities, leaving us stuck in fear and self-doubt. In the midst of challenges, it’s easy to forget that many of our barriers are self-imposed. Remembering this truth can help us break free from those limitations and see the path forward more clearly. 

Quote for the day - Dec 18, 2024

Not much to add today other than here are some quotes that I found interesting that showed up in my Readwise feed today.

"The core value of the working class is being part of a like-minded group—a family, a union, or a community, which engenders a strong sense of loyalty. The core value of the middle class is achievement by the individual."
–Alfred Lubrano, Limbo

"The division between the emotional brain and the rational brain runs deep in our culture and is clearly expressed in the cultural divide between religion and science that first emerged during the European Enlightenment. It is, in the words of Tony Leiserowitz at the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, “a long cultural mistake” to divide the two."
–George Marshall, Don't Even Think About It

The Landscape Approach to Global Health

The relationship between personal health, community health, and landscape health can be understood as an interconnected system, where each component influences and is influenced by the others. From a climate perspective, this connection is especially significant, as environmental changes—such as shifts in temperature, precipitation patterns, or biodiversity—create cascading effects that impact health at multiple levels.

For example, changes in the landscape, such as deforestation or urbanization, can directly degrade air and water quality, leading to increased respiratory illnesses, waterborne diseases, and heat-related conditions. Conversely, the resilience of the landscape—its ability to sustain diverse ecosystems and provide critical services—helps buffer communities from health risks associated with climate extremes, such as floods, droughts, and heatwaves.

Examining these linkages through a climate lens opens the door to innovative approaches to health and environmental stewardship. For instance, restorative practices like reforestation, wetland conservation, and regenerative agriculture offer co-benefits for both the environment and communities. These practices can improve food security, reduce exposure to pollutants, and enhance mental health by providing greater access to green spaces.

The concept of biophilia—our innate connection to nature—further highlights the importance of healthy landscapes. Biodiverse and aesthetically rich environments have been shown to reduce stress, enhance cognitive function, and foster social cohesion. This reinforces the mental and emotional benefits of living in harmony with nature.

Additionally, climate change alters disease dynamics, creating new challenges for public health. For example, shifting ecosystems may provide habitats for disease vectors like mosquitoes, enabling the spread of illnesses such as malaria or dengue fever to regions previously unaffected. This demonstrates the need to integrate climate resilience into public health strategies to mitigate such risks.

Ultimately, the interplay between personal, community, and landscape health forms a dynamic and complex system. Adopting a holistic, climate-informed approach allows us to address the interdependencies between environmental health and human well-being. By doing so, we can create solutions that are more sustainable, equitable, and impactful across scales.

Article

Health and landscape approaches: A comparative review of integrated approaches to health and landscape management

This article explores the relationship between health and the landscape approach, a form of systems thinking. It focuses on three distinct applications of the systems approach, each grounded in unique ontological foundations.

Link to article

Description:

Landscape approaches focus on managing specific areas by bringing together ideas from different fields to create sustainable solutions. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on how people live, move, and interact with the environment, highlighting the need for health approaches that connect humans and nature. This has led to an increased focus on integrated health approaches in policy discussions.

Approaches like One Health, Ecohealth, and Planetary Health are all types of landscape approaches because they address the connections between health, the environment, and society. This study reviews these health-oriented approaches to understand their shared ideas and unique differences. It looks at their history, how they’ve developed, and their approaches to solving health and environmental challenges.

The study finds that all these approaches share key features, such as systems thinking, working across disciplines, and promoting collaboration across different fields. However, they differ in the specific problems they address, the areas they focus on, and the ontological roots (the underlying mindset) guiding their research. By examining these approaches together, the study suggests ways to strengthen landscape approaches by using health-focused methods to better understand the connections between health and landscapes.

Quotes for December 15

 Hi everyone, here are the quotes from my readwise stream this morning. Happy Sunday!

People often complain about the present times, but human life has never been better than it is now.

As Yuval Noah Harari states in Homo Deus:

"For the first time in history, more people die today from eating too much than from eating too little; more people die from old age than from infectious diseases; and more people commit suicide than are killed by soldiers, terrorists, and criminals combined."

Despite this progress, social divisions persist. These divisions often rely on "othering" narratives to uphold power structures within their domains—a phenomenon that could be described as "ontological blinkardness." Our institutional silos, our tendency to "other," and our self-centered thinking prevent us from making further progress.

Jim Sidanius and Felicia Pratto highlight this in Social Dominance:

"The split earlier in this century between sociology and social psychology contributed to these divisions and continues to hinder a more comprehensive and rich understanding of the problems of racism, sexism, classism, and general group oppression."

But perhaps, the issue isn’t just out there—maybe it’s me.

Anthony De Mello and J. Francis Stroud, in Awareness, suggest:

"We see people and things not as they are, but as we are. That is why when two people look at something or someone, you get two different reactions. We see things and people not as they are, but as we are."

On growing up, Lulu Miller offers a profound insight in Why Fish Don’t Exist:

"‘Growing up,’ she told me, ‘is learning to stop believing people’s words about you.’"

And maybe, it’s also about letting go. As Silvio Funtowicz said in a discussion on post-normal science advice:

"You have to abandon this idea that you can predict and you can control."

But wait, there's more

Breaking Ontological Silos Through the Zettelkasten Approach

Sönke Ahrens, in How to Take Smart Notes, describes how the Zettelkasten method disrupts traditional, siloed ways of thinking:

"That the slip-box is not sorted by topics is the precondition for actively building connections between notes. Connections can be made between heterogeneous notes – as long as the connection makes sense. This is the best antidote to the impeding way most information is given to us in our learning institutions. Most often, it comes in modular form, sorted by topic, separated by disciplines and generally isolated from other information. The slip-box is forcing us to do the exact opposite: To elaborate, to understand, to connect and therefore to learn seriously."

By avoiding rigid categorization, the Zettelkasten approach encourages a deeper understanding through the creation of meaningful connections, breaking down institutional silos that often isolate knowledge into disconnected disciplines.

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Understanding the Difference Between Chaotic and Complex Systems

Per Bak, in How Nature Works, explains the key difference between chaotic and complex systems:

"Chaotic systems have no memory of the past and cannot evolve."

This distinction helps clarify why chaotic systems remain unpredictable and stagnant, while complex systems—like human societies—retain memory and adapt over time.

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The Complexity of Humans and the World

The world is undeniably complex, as are humans. Yet, as Ben Ramalingam points out in Aid on the Edge of Chaos, we often try to impose simple solutions on deeply complex problems:

"Aid tends to try and solve simple problems through narrow, prescribed interventions."

This highlights a critical flaw in many systems of aid and intervention: they fail to account for the intricate, interconnected nature of the challenges they aim to address. 

Today's Public Service Post

I saw this in a CapitalOne email, and these two scams stood out to me as some of the newest and latest schemes that need to be highlighted.

“My family member sounded like they were in trouble.”

Impersonation of a loved one Scammers may use artificial intelligence or other technologies to mimic voices when impersonating a trusted individual or organization. On these calls, they often impersonate a loved one in an emergency who needs money fast, or a trusted business needing to verify sensitive information. New technology makes it increasingly difficult to tell fake video or audio clips from real ones.

Helpful tips

Listen for unnatural pauses or robotic speech. Question unexpected requests for personal or financial information. Always verify the caller’s identity—often a loved one claiming to be in trouble—through a trusted source. To protect yourself, you can set up a code word with loved ones for true emergencies.

“My bank called me about fraudulent transactions.”

Bank impersonation scams Scammers may pose as a financial institution, like Capital One, to try and gain access to your account. They often use a fake caller ID that shows up as the financial institution and claim you’ve had fraudulent transactions on your account. To resolve the situation the scammer will have you make payments to reverse the fraud and protect the account. They’ll also sometimes ask for your Social Security number, government ID, or a digitally sent one-time passcode (OTP) to gain access to your account. Once they gain unauthorized access to your account, the real fraudulent transactions begin.

Helpful tips

If you’re ever in doubt when speaking over the phone, hang up and call the number on the back of your card. Financial institutions will never ask you to purchase gift cards to make payments to your account. Never send money transfers or give the number on the back of a gift card to anyone you don’t know.