variety is everything
‘these are sometimes presented as if they are opposites or in conflict, notably in respect of social affairs. 'rigour' tends to be identified with some unitary approach, and with a remorseless trend towards the hegemony of a 'one-world' culture (usually, white, male, capitalist, middle class and western). conversely, 'variety' stands for that which eludes or escapes this trend.’
‘if you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. if you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. if you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.’ — sun tzu’s the art of war
• the fundamental idea that i asserted in my toe, is that life is a function of the requisite variety. a brief overview of the law of requisite variety.
• ross ashby was a british cybernetician and one of the pioneers in systems theory and cybernetics. he’s best known for his work on understanding how complex systems, like the brain or organizations, maintain stability and adapt to their environment. his ideas were rooted in the belief that systems, whether biological, mechanical, or social, can be studied in terms of their behavior and how they respond to external changes. ashby’s work laid the groundwork for concepts like self-organization and feedback loops, which are now central in fields like artificial intelligence and organizational management (ha).
• the "law of requisite variety" is his most famous idea. in simple terms, it says that for a system to effectively control or manage a situation, it needs to have at least as much complexity as the situation it’s trying to manage. think of it as saying you can’t use simple tools to solve complex problems. for example, if you're trying to manage a chaotic workplace, you need strategies or flexibility that can match that chaos. it’s a way of emphasizing that control and adaptability are only possible when there’s enough variety in the responses a system can generate. it’s useful for understanding why some systems fail—they just don’t have the variety or complexity to deal with the challenges they face.
• ashby’s law of requisite variety can be operationalized with war metaphor. the goal of any operation is to win; to be successful by means of accomplishing it’s objectives; which implies some event with some outcome that creates some amount of life. the enemy is defeat; not accomplishing objectives.
• the extent to which the operation has enough variety of awareness in the beginning and delivery of the operation, is the extent to which the operation wins the war. the extent to which the operation wins the war is the extent to which it understands the situation, which is a function of creation
• during a natural disaster, such as a hurricane or earthquake, emergency response teams must handle a variety of inputs, such as weather conditions, damage reports, and the needs of affected populations. to manage these inputs effectively, the team has a range of responses and actions at its disposal, including deploying rescue teams, setting up temporary shelters, coordinating with other agencies, and distributing supplies. if the response team lacked the requisite variety of strategies or resources to address different aspects of the disaster, such as medical emergencies, infrastructure damage, or logistical challenges, their effectiveness in managing the crisis would be significantly diminished.
• in producing a software the team has various receptors (input variety) that detect different signals related to the software’s progress, such as feedback from users, technical challenges, and software milestones. in response to these signals, the team has various regulators, such as adjusting software timelines, reallocating resources, hiring additional talent, or revising software’s requirements. if the software’s lack the requisite variety of awareness regarding software’s goals, team capabilities, or necessary hires, the product manager won’t be able to effectively manage the sofware. if the requisite variety (v_r) of a product manager or team is greater than or equal to the variety of disturbances (v_d) encountered in the software, the software successful.
• this idea can be operationalized via operations but applies to anything. in a fist fight your body has receptors that detect various signals (input variety) related to the physical sensations and environmental cues during a fist fight, such as your opponent's movements, the impact of punches, and your own level of fatigue. in response to these signals, you have various actions or control mechanisms (response variety) you can use to increase your chances of winning, such as dodging, counter-attacking, adjusting your stance, or strategizing based on your opponent's weaknesses. if you lacked the requisite variety of responses or didn’t have the skills and techniques needed to handle different situations, it would be ineffective in winning the fight.
• organizations, not different then people are subject to the law of requisite variety. there variety, represents the number of possible states within the system. this number increases daily for every institution due to the expanding range of possibilities provided by education, technology, communications, and prosperity, as well as the interactions among these factors that generate even more variety. to regulate such a system, we must be able to absorb its variety. failure to do so leads to instability: at best, we lose control; at worst, we collapse.
‘we might also suggest the extension of our psychopathological analogy to the point where an organization is described as suffering from neurosis. to justify this extension, it will be necessary to examine briefly the conditions under which individuals do in fact become neurotic. the individual lives in a world in which he has defined himself as existing. he inherently belongs to the environment in which he partakes; his behaviour cannot be considered independently from that environment. the man is not confronted with an external situation from which he is at liberty to divorce himself; he interprets his environment through his own reaction to it. for the individual, psychotherapy prescribes a 'proportioning treatment'. there must be a redefinition of the symbols and meanings that make up the environment, in which the manias and phobias which confirm and ingrain the neurosis are eliminated. in other words, we should seek to cut away the vicious reverberatory feedback circuits. organizationally, an analogous process would have to be attempted. it would probably amount to a re-disposition of individuals, and a redefinition of functions and responsibilities.’
• we can think about most of our day to day lives as lacking the requisite variety of awareness to select the right goals and execute on tasks. this a whorfian situation. the whorf hypothesis is a 20th century linguistics concept that shows how language both shapes our worldview and determines the level of fidelity in which one is able to see things. language determines the way we think, and people are to a large degree able to understand the world in terms of their language. if a language doesn't have a word or concept for something, its speakers may not perceive the thing.
• to illustrate the power of language and abstraction, consider the following example. take a rock average joe: when you or i look at a rock, our descriptions might be basic—like "big" or "smooth". this limits our ability to create life with the rock because our language toolbox (or typology) is pretty basic. we see it, maybe skip it across a pond, or use it as a paperweight. our ability to produce life is limited.
• geologist’s perspective: a geologist sees the same rock and thinks about its mineral composition (like quartz or feldspar), its origin (whether it's igneous, metamorphic, or sedimentary), its grain size, hardness, and maybe even age. the geologist’s typology allows them to create more life. the geologist can create information about the rock. its history: how was this rock formed? was it from volcanic magma or compressed ancient seabeds? the geologist can do things with it: is this rock good for building materials, or can it be ground down for some industrial purpose? maybe the rock has valuable minerals or metals. when we look at the rock example, the "average joe" has limited linguistic and conceptual variety regarding rocks. his cognitive toolkit, or his views to manage, describe, or interact with rocks is limited. therefore, his control over or understanding of the rock's nuances is minimal. on the other hand, the geologist, equipped with a richer typology, has the requisite variety to not only understand the rock's detailed properties but predict its behavior and utilize it efficiently. to create life one needs the receptors (which are often words) proportional to that complexity to create the right regulators.