#socialsystems — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #socialsystems, aggregated by home.social.
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"Gig platforms can simply 'wait out' workers to slash wages, research reveals
" a study that uncovers a mathematical strategy explaining how digital labor platforms can systematically suppress wages."
https://phys.org/news/2026-07-gig-platforms-simply-workers-slash.html
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"Gig platforms can simply 'wait out' workers to slash wages, research reveals
" a study that uncovers a mathematical strategy explaining how digital labor platforms can systematically suppress wages."
https://phys.org/news/2026-07-gig-platforms-simply-workers-slash.html
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Social Systems Thinking
Systems
Systems are collections of parts whose relationships change relatively slowly, so they can be recognised as a whole. The behaviour of the whole is more than just the sum of the behaviours of the individual parts.
Systems Thinking
Systems Thinking is a collection of tools that allow us to understand what systems do, how they do it, and how to change them.
It allows us to make some predictions of how systems will behave in the future. It is partly an additional set of tools which augment the ways in which we think about simpler problems and partly a method which selects the right tool for the job and acknowledges that the simpler tools may give a wrong, but potentially persuasive answer.
Social Systems
Social systems are systems whose main parts are human beings[1], but may be made up of smaller social systems and infrastructure. For example, a country such as Canada is made up of a population of about 40 million people, has a federal government and Provinces, has transportation systems, border control points, several education and health systems and more.
The behaviour of social systems is more complex than that of inanimate systems for four reasons.
- Their principle parts—humans—are already very complex systems themselves. Many sources have claimed that the human brain is the most complex system in the universe (e.g. Patrick Kraus—The Most Complex System in the Universe)[2].
- Each human can play many different roles in different social systems which make up a bigger system and the way they play those roles differ widely between people in the same in ways that, for example, the a cog in a mechanical system does not do.
- We, the humans who are trying to understand the systems, are part of and shaped by the very systems we are trying to understand. And that shaping includes stories about how the systems work
- Social systems change significantly while remaining recognisably the same system. We call this “history”.
Social Systems Thinking
Social Systems Thinking is a collection of tools that allow us to understand what social systems do, how they do it, and how to change them. Just as the simpler tools that are used to understand simple collections of things are not always adequate for systems, so the systems thinking tools for inanimate systems like clocks and heating systems are not always useful for understanding the more complex behaviours of social systems.
- InB4 There are many other species which form social systems, but for brevity on this site I don’t usually bother writing “human social systems”↩︎
- If each human brain is an example of the most complex system in the universe, isn’t global society—an interacting collection of eight billion of them—even more complex?↩︎
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Social Systems Thinking
Systems
Systems are collections of parts whose relationships change relatively slowly, so they can be recognised as a whole. The behaviour of the whole is more than just the sum of the behaviours of the individual parts.
Systems Thinking
Systems Thinking is a collection of tools that allow us to understand what systems do, how they do it, and how to change them.
It allows us to make some predictions of how systems will behave in the future. It is partly an additional set of tools which augment the ways in which we think about simpler problems and partly a method which selects the right tool for the job and acknowledges that the simpler tools may give a wrong, but potentially persuasive answer.
Social Systems
Social systems are systems whose main parts are human beings[1], but may be made up of smaller social systems and infrastructure. For example, a country such as Canada is made up of a population of about 40 million people, has a federal government and Provinces, has transportation systems, border control points, several education and health systems and more.
The behaviour of social systems is more complex than that of inanimate systems for four reasons.
- Their principle parts—humans—are already very complex systems themselves. Many sources have claimed that the human brain is the most complex system in the universe (e.g. Patrick Kraus—The Most Complex System in the Universe)[2].
- Each human can play many different roles in different social systems which make up a bigger system and the way they play those roles differ widely between people in the same in ways that, for example, the a cog in a mechanical system does not do.
- We, the humans who are trying to understand the systems, are part of and shaped by the very systems we are trying to understand. And that shaping includes stories about how the systems work
- Social systems change significantly while remaining recognisably the same system. We call this “history”.
Social Systems Thinking
Social Systems Thinking is a collection of tools that allow us to understand what social systems do, how they do it, and how to change them. Just as the simpler tools that are used to understand simple collections of things are not always adequate for systems, so the systems thinking tools for inanimate systems like clocks and heating systems are not always useful for understanding the more complex behaviours of social systems.
- InB4 There are many other species which form social systems, but for brevity on this site I don’t usually bother writing “human social systems”↩︎
- If each human brain is an example of the most complex system in the universe, isn’t global society—an interacting collection of eight billion of them—even more complex?↩︎
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Values, Ethics, Purposes and Requirements
If we want to change our social systems for the better, we need to know what “better” means, and for whom.
Even the Prime Minister of Canada used to think we should start there; he wrote a book called “Value(s)”, in which he argued that we should put ethical values before financial value. Unfortunately, he seems to have changed his mind since becoming Prime Minister; he is now solidly in favour of growing the economy (rich people’s wealth and power) even if it means destroying the environment and retreating before Trump’s attacks.
I find it useful to distinguish a few levels of desired results of the behaviour of a social system. Values and ethics are broadly applicable across a whole society, whatever that may be. In a globalised world, it is the whole planet. It’s not clear to me how we could divide the world into parts with different basic values and avoid conflict, though maybe that is possible.
Values are broadly applicable set of basic principles that all social systems should satisfy. Examples include justice, equality of rights and dignity, duty and freedom.
Ethics are the rules of behaviour for individuals that enable the system to work according to the principles. Examples include treating others with respect and kindness, and showing solidarity with others.
Purposes and requirements are about specific systems.
- Purpose: The intended results of the system. Examples include, for a school, to provide students with the skills and knowledge they need, in specified areas. However, in all but the smallest systems, different people have different intentions. Some interested parties may want schools to produce “good” workers, whereas others may want them to help students to reach their full potential in directions defined by themselves.
- Requirements: The specific needs which a system must implement. Examples include “provide classroom instruction by people with specific skills”, “provide unbiased assessments of the capabilities of students as they enter and leave a program”.
In practice, it’s a lot more complex than this, and there is no clear dividing line between the levels. Whole schools of philosophy, with thousands of books and millions of scholarly papers have been devoted to values and ethics, and various post-secondary schools teach ethics aimed at specific systems, such as “business ethics.
I will have much more to say about this, later.
#Ethics #Philosophy #socialSystems #values -
Values, Ethics, Purposes and Requirements
If we want to change our social systems for the better, we need to know what “better” means, and for whom.
Even the Prime Minister of Canada used to think we should start there; he wrote a book called “Value(s)”, in which he argued that we should put ethical values before financial value. Unfortunately, he seems to have changed his mind since becoming Prime Minister; he is now solidly in favour of growing the economy (rich people’s wealth and power) even if it means destroying the environment and retreating before Trump’s attacks.
I find it useful to distinguish a few levels of desired results of the behaviour of a social system. Values and ethics are broadly applicable across a whole society, whatever that may be. In a globalised world, it is the whole planet. It’s not clear to me how we could divide the world into parts with different basic values and avoid conflict, though maybe that is possible.
Values are broadly applicable set of basic principles that all social systems should satisfy. Examples include justice, equality of rights and dignity, duty and freedom.
Ethics are the rules of behaviour for individuals that enable the system to work according to the principles. Examples include treating others with respect and kindness, and showing solidarity with others.
Purposes and requirements are about specific systems.
- Purpose: The intended results of the system. Examples include, for a school, to provide students with the skills and knowledge they need, in specified areas. However, in all but the smallest systems, different people have different intentions. Some interested parties may want schools to produce “good” workers, whereas others may want them to help students to reach their full potential in directions defined by themselves.
- Requirements: The specific needs which a system must implement. Examples include “provide classroom instruction by people with specific skills”, “provide unbiased assessments of the capabilities of students as they enter and leave a program”.
In practice, it’s a lot more complex than this, and there is no clear dividing line between the levels. Whole schools of philosophy, with thousands of books and millions of scholarly papers have been devoted to values and ethics, and various post-secondary schools teach ethics aimed at specific systems, such as “business ethics.
I will have much more to say about this, later.
#Ethics #Philosophy #socialSystems #values -
Humans are Social Animals—We need each other
Here is a blog post about the limitations of individual humans, our power as social animals, our obligations to each other and the radical change in our social systems that we need to change the social systems that give power to sociopaths.
http://ericlawton.org/2026/07/10/humans-are-social-animals-we-need-each-other/
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Humans are Social Animals—We need each other
Here is a blog post about the limitations of individual humans, our power as social animals, our obligations to each other and the radical change in our social systems that we need to change the social systems that give power to sociopaths.
http://ericlawton.org/2026/07/10/humans-are-social-animals-we-need-each-other/
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Homelessness has been framed as a housing problem in NZ. The reality is more complex
> Interviews with 55 Aucklanders reveal how gaps between housing, health, income and justice services can make it harder to find a path out of homelessness.
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Homelessness has been framed as a housing problem in NZ. The reality is more complex
> Interviews with 55 Aucklanders reveal how gaps between housing, health, income and justice services can make it harder to find a path out of homelessness.
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Oxford boaters every day commons
There will be increasing experience of commons as lived infrastructure, not theory, not an idea waiting to be implemented. As the #mainstreaming keeps failing people will need practical, community-led way of meeting shared needs that work and exists wherever people cooperate outside of markets and hierarchy. Commons are not abstract systems, they are what people do when they stop waiting for permission. We have a recent example - #Oxfordboaters it is messy commons in real time, not a perfect […]https://hamishcampbell.com/oxford-boaters-every-day-commons/
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HYBRIDMIND42 | APRIL 2026
Paper 6 — The Systemic Floor and Integrated Persistence
Evaluating Stability Across Measurement, Time, Signal, Intervention, and Access
#HybridMind42 #PublicPolicy #SystemsThinking #UKPolicy #SocialSystems #EconomicPolicy #Wellbeing #Accessibility #PolicyDesign #Inequality #ComplexSystems
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HYBRIDMIND42 | APRIL 2026
Paper 6 — The Systemic Floor and Integrated Persistence
Evaluating Stability Across Measurement, Time, Signal, Intervention, and Access
#HybridMind42 #PublicPolicy #SystemsThinking #UKPolicy #SocialSystems #EconomicPolicy #Wellbeing #Accessibility #PolicyDesign #Inequality #ComplexSystems
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What if the problem isn’t access to support—
but the ability to access the system itself?https://substack.com/@hybridmind42/note/p-194712512?r=75c2ac
#HybridMind42 #PublicPolicy #UKPolicy #DWP #HMRC #MakingTaxDigital #SystemsThinking #Accessibility #DigitalInclusion #AdministrativeBurden #SocialSystems #PolicyDesign
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We started by asking: what do our systems see?
Now we ask: do they allow people time to adapt?
Paper 2 looks at pension changes through the lens of expectation boundaries. When those shift too late, people are left bridging the gap themselves.
Not collapse—
but strain where it matters most. -
More "side effects" of the Netanyahu-Trump war.
Volkswagen may turn car factory into Iron Dome hub with Israel partnership
These large changes to our #SocialSystems have global ripple effects that shift everything away from peace and increase the likelihood of war.
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More "side effects" of the Netanyahu-Trump war.
Volkswagen may turn car factory into Iron Dome hub with Israel partnership
These large changes to our #SocialSystems have global ripple effects that shift everything away from peace and increase the likelihood of war.
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“Claude” isn't a person. It's not the kind of thing that could have had a job but no longer does. It can't “have” anything. It can't take responsibility for text posted on Substack.
We are damaging our social systems if we go along with the corporate marketing that tries to persuade us otherwise.
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“Claude” isn't a person. It's not the kind of thing that could have had a job but no longer does. It can't “have” anything. It can't take responsibility for text posted on Substack.
We are damaging our social systems if we go along with the corporate marketing that tries to persuade us otherwise.
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Fresh Start for Better Systems
Because of family health challenges, I have had to ditch some of my community work and focus on home. But I am going to try to keep going on my book on Making a Better World, in the hopes that some of it might prove useful. #socialSystems
http://ericlawton.org/2026/02/21/fresh-start-for-better-systems/
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Fresh Start for Better Systems
Because of family health challenges, I have had to ditch some of my community work and focus on home. But I am going to try to keep going on my book on Making a Better World, in the hopes that some of it might prove useful. #socialSystems
http://ericlawton.org/2026/02/21/fresh-start-for-better-systems/
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Fresh Start for Better Systems
I have not been well for some time; an iron deficiency has left me short of energy and easily out of breath. My wife’s health is even worse so I am her full-time caregiver, which means I have not caught up with the backlog of work from the year-end “holidays”, which added work for several gatherings in our home for guests we really wanted to do.
I have reluctantly abandoned several tasks for community give-back; I just don’t have the energy until we can fix this problem; I’m still awaiting several medical tests to try to determine the cause, though I have some relief from trans- and in-fusions.
But I have decided to keep up with writing my books, focusing on my Better Systems book. I have been working on it for 10 years, mostly for my own benefit in thinking about social systems. I have made—and fixed—enough mistakes while working on it that I think I should work towards publishing it, first on my website and then possibly commercially. To that end, I removed it all from the website because the content was getting inconsistent and I have just put the Introduction and top level Table of Contents back on the web and intend to fill in the content again as quickly as my energy-levels will permit. Since I’m in my final quarter-century, I don’t think I have another ten years left to work on it.
The table of contents also contains work on my autobiography and a planned book on philosophy.
Because it’s possible that I may try commercial publishing later, I am putting a copyright notice on the chapters, but will also put the main ideas on this blog under Creative Commons. After all, as I say in the Introduction, we owe almost all our ideas to the community. Since I read a lot of philosophy and history, “my” ideas have roots thousands of years old.
Any comments people make, that I use, will be acknowledged as theirs, and I may return the whole thing to the commons if it proves too much work to get it published.
I hope it proves useful to somebody, somewhere, sometime.
#socialSystems -
Fresh Start for Better Systems
I have not been well for some time; an iron deficiency has left me short of energy and easily out of breath. My wife’s health is even worse so I am her full-time caregiver, which means I have not caught up with the backlog of work from the year-end “holidays”, which added work for several gatherings in our home for guests we really wanted to do.
I have reluctantly abandoned several tasks for community give-back; I just don’t have the energy until we can fix this problem; I’m still awaiting several medical tests to try to determine the cause, though I have some relief from trans- and in-fusions.
But I have decided to keep up with writing my books, focusing on my Better Systems book. I have been working on it for 10 years, mostly for my own benefit in thinking about social systems. I have made—and fixed—enough mistakes while working on it that I think I should work towards publishing it, first on my website and then possibly commercially. To that end, I removed it all from the website because the content was getting inconsistent and I have just put the Introduction and top level Table of Contents back on the web and intend to fill in the content again as quickly as my energy-levels will permit. Since I’m in my final quarter-century, I don’t think I have another ten years left to work on it.
The table of contents also contains work on my autobiography and a planned book on philosophy.
Because it’s possible that I may try commercial publishing later, I am putting a copyright notice on the chapters, but will also put the main ideas on this blog under Creative Commons. After all, as I say in the Introduction, we owe almost all our ideas to the community. Since I read a lot of philosophy and history, “my” ideas have roots thousands of years old.
Any comments people make, that I use, will be acknowledged as theirs, and I may return the whole thing to the commons if it proves too much work to get it published.
I hope it proves useful to somebody, somewhere, sometime.
#socialSystems -
The Epstein connection network graph is a large subnet of the global oligarchy network.
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The Epstein connection network graph is a large subnet of the global oligarchy network.
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The global oligarchy is a pedophile ring.
Who could have guessed?
Lord Acton, for one:
"Absolute power corrupts absolutely". -
The global oligarchy is a pedophile ring.
Who could have guessed?
Lord Acton, for one:
"Absolute power corrupts absolutely". -
Labour thinktank close to Morgan McSweeney paid firm to investigate journalists
Political parties always become antidemocratic. It's a systemic problem
> Labour Together hired company to look at Sunday Times and Guardian reporters after article about donations, documents suggest
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Labour thinktank close to Morgan McSweeney paid firm to investigate journalists
Political parties always become antidemocratic. It's a systemic problem
> Labour Together hired company to look at Sunday Times and Guardian reporters after article about donations, documents suggest
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If you have a check that you forgot to deposit, from 5 years ago, the bank won't take it. It's just a piece of paper.
If your institutions no longer honor the Constitution, it's also just a piece of paper.
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If you have a check that you forgot to deposit, from 5 years ago, the bank won't take it. It's just a piece of paper.
If your institutions no longer honor the Constitution, it's also just a piece of paper.
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Further proof that the primary purpose of cops is to themselves, as an institution
They're there to protect and serve themselves.
Like any other social system, they evolve to behave like that; if they don't, they perish as an organization. No more jobs, no more "authority", no more of anything else they want for themselves as cops.
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Further proof that the primary purpose of cops is to themselves, as an institution
They're there to protect and serve themselves.
Like any other social system, they evolve to behave like that; if they don't, they perish as an organization. No more jobs, no more "authority", no more of anything else they want for themselves as cops.
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Mental health is plummeting in Toronto. Here’s what we can do to solve a ‘wicked’ problem
"He pointed to activities that are proven to lead to better outcomes: local clubs, healthy evening activities, volunteering and outside exercise."
“All of those things that people used to do ...need to be brought back,” he said.
But he added that we also need greater access to community mental health services, more affordable housing, and more support for families who are experiencing food insecurity or other financial pressures.
Funny how he didn't say "more cops to smash homeless camps and do 'wellness checks' with guns".
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Mental health is plummeting in Toronto. Here’s what we can do to solve a ‘wicked’ problem
"He pointed to activities that are proven to lead to better outcomes: local clubs, healthy evening activities, volunteering and outside exercise."
“All of those things that people used to do ...need to be brought back,” he said.
But he added that we also need greater access to community mental health services, more affordable housing, and more support for families who are experiencing food insecurity or other financial pressures.
Funny how he didn't say "more cops to smash homeless camps and do 'wellness checks' with guns".
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The NDP leadership race is a nail-biter. But is anyone paying attention? | CBC News
"The amount of dollars a leadership candidate can pull in tends to be a strong indicator of who will win."
This whole story is about money, organisational strength, campaigning experience, ability to "take on Conservatives"—whatever that means, factions, …
Almost nothing about policy.
The party political system doesn't work.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ndp-leadership-race-front-runners-9.7040374?cmp=rss
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The NDP leadership race is a nail-biter. But is anyone paying attention? | CBC News
"The amount of dollars a leadership candidate can pull in tends to be a strong indicator of who will win."
This whole story is about money, organisational strength, campaigning experience, ability to "take on Conservatives"—whatever that means, factions, …
Almost nothing about policy.
The party political system doesn't work.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ndp-leadership-race-front-runners-9.7040374?cmp=rss
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There is something very wrong when our governments protect the rich and powerful and harm those most in need of help.
Too many of us have been persuaded that both groups "deserve" what they get.
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There is something very wrong when our governments protect the rich and powerful and harm those most in need of help.
Too many of us have been persuaded that both groups "deserve" what they get.
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What does "do your own research" mean, in an age with massive corporate media ownership, LLMs, bot armies and other means of mass deception?
We don't, as individuals, have the time or resources to fact-check everything. We need reliable social systems that can be trusted to do that for us.
Billionaires can afford to buy their own: the should be taxed to provide funding for independent media.
If we had a pool of public money to support such media, how could we best allocate that money to independent media?
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What does "do your own research" mean, in an age with massive corporate media ownership, LLMs, bot armies and other means of mass deception?
We don't, as individuals, have the time or resources to fact-check everything. We need reliable social systems that can be trusted to do that for us.
Billionaires can afford to buy their own: the should be taxed to provide funding for independent media.
If we had a pool of public money to support such media, how could we best allocate that money to independent media?
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That's an interesting systems perspective on a question addressed from a philosophical and a psychological perspective in Wittgenstein's *On Certainty* and Robert Burton's *On Being Certain*
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That's an interesting systems perspective on a question addressed from a philosophical and a psychological perspective in Wittgenstein's *On Certainty* and Robert Burton's *On Being Certain*
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Lords rules and culture make it easy for peers to abuse privileged position
> Unreformed system means peers can profit by taking outside roles based on insider knowledge and access
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Lords rules and culture make it easy for peers to abuse privileged position
> Unreformed system means peers can profit by taking outside roles based on insider knowledge and access
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“The Economy” is a marketing myth
Unless economists and the media start describing the allocation of goods, services and power in terms that measure genuine benefits, costs and risks for everyone, and until politicians start managing the whole systems to optimise according to democratic consensus on these measures, “the economy” is just a marketing tool for capitalists. #economics #socialSystems #capitalism
http://ericlawton.org/2025/11/24/the-economy-is-a-marketing-myth/
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“The Economy” is a marketing myth
Unless economists and the media start describing the allocation of goods, services and power in terms that measure genuine benefits, costs and risks for everyone, and until politicians start managing the whole systems to optimise according to democratic consensus on these measures, “the economy” is just a marketing tool for capitalists. #economics #socialSystems #capitalism
http://ericlawton.org/2025/11/24/the-economy-is-a-marketing-myth/
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It's a challenging systemic problem.
I was lucky enough to be born early enough that, in England in 1969, my university degree was free (tuition AND living expenses) and people with one were in high demand regardless of grades. Paid for by the government for any first degree.
It was believed to benefit not only the student but society as a whole.
I remain convinced that this is still true.
Now, the pressure to compete for those first steps on the career ladder and make enough, quickly, to pay off those massive millstone-debts means that the purpose of university has become mostly "get good grades" instead of "learn to think deeply".
Now that we have "leaders" (bosses) who don't like critical thinking, that's not going to change unless we replace those oligarchs.
I have retired now but I still write for several hours a week just to learn new things, as it's the best way I know how, regardless of whether or not anyone will ever read it.
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It's a challenging systemic problem.
I was lucky enough to be born early enough that, in England in 1969, my university degree was free (tuition AND living expenses) and people with one were in high demand regardless of grades. Paid for by the government for any first degree.
It was believed to benefit not only the student but society as a whole.
I remain convinced that this is still true.
Now, the pressure to compete for those first steps on the career ladder and make enough, quickly, to pay off those massive millstone-debts means that the purpose of university has become mostly "get good grades" instead of "learn to think deeply".
Now that we have "leaders" (bosses) who don't like critical thinking, that's not going to change unless we replace those oligarchs.
I have retired now but I still write for several hours a week just to learn new things, as it's the best way I know how, regardless of whether or not anyone will ever read it.
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From Arms Races to Harms Races
The nuclear arms race bankrupted the USSR and resulted in poisoning the atmosphere for decades, waste of billions of dollars on weapons that still sit idle in bunkers and will kill billions if they are used. There are many other races that cause harm in a similar manner, share several symptoms with arms races and have similar ways to reduce the harm. In this post, I use advertising as an example. #HarmsRace #advertising #marketing #systemsThinking #SocialSystems
http://ericlawton.org/2025/11/15/from-arms-races-to-harms-races/
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From Arms Races to Harms Races
The nuclear arms race bankrupted the USSR and resulted in poisoning the atmosphere for decades, waste of billions of dollars on weapons that still sit idle in bunkers and will kill billions if they are used. There are many other races that cause harm in a similar manner, share several symptoms with arms races and have similar ways to reduce the harm. In this post, I use advertising as an example. #HarmsRace #advertising #marketing #systemsThinking #SocialSystems
http://ericlawton.org/2025/11/15/from-arms-races-to-harms-races/
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It seems we have a systemic problem, requiring deep systems changes.
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It seems we have a systemic problem, requiring deep systems changes.
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Something I've tried to capture in ‘Verses #ttrpg is how #socialSystems interact with & affect characters and their actions. I believe that modeling this with some fidelity enriches player experiences, and is an un- or under-explored force in #worldbuilding in many other games. Modeling these systems at the core rules level means that expansion authors and GMs don't have to spend the time to “roll their own”
One cool example is the relationship between Wealth & money:
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Yes there is already a deep integration across the military-industrial complex, but so far, industry has delivered the weapons, the military has operated them.
With the military-tech complex, the tech companies operate the weapons.
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Yes there is already a deep integration across the military-industrial complex, but do far, industry has delivered the weapons, the military has operated them.
With the military-tech complex, the tech companies operate the weapons.