Sublime

But it can also go the other way. What economics has missed is that adding an incentive—a fine or a bonus—may be subtracting something else, the individual’s sense of responsibility, or obligation, or intrinsic pleasure.

fractal fame

foundations were laid in Victorian times. Now it is changing radically. Standard economics is suddenly being challenged by a number of new approaches: behavioral economics, neuroeconomics, new institutional economics. One of the new approaches came to life at the Santa Fe Institute: complexity economics.

studying the motivations of individuals in isolation: the patterns we see are a fundamentally social affair. More, as Anderson

There are, however, on this planet phenomena that are hidden in plain sight. These are the phenomena that we study as complex systems: the convoluted exhibitions of the adaptive world—from cells to societies.

This is a “rich get richer” sort of model in which the more a word is used in the past, the more likely it is that it will attract more use in the future.

people are cultural beings. They can’t help themselves.