UPDATE: 'Getting Out of Control' available September 23
Finally.............
Hello, and thank you again for your interest in my forthcoming book, Getting Out of Control: Emergent Leadership in a Complex World.
I have been nearly silent through this channel because I was finishing the book and dealing with the (many many) developments in the tech policy world. I should have brought you along on that crazy journey. But this is no time for regrets. (And I think it’s safe to say that there is plenty of crazy journey left.)
Book Update - LAUNCH IS SEPTEMBER 23!
That’s right, just over a month from now the book will be widely available for order. Right now we are assembling social media assets and setting up campaign plans so steel yourselves for a deluge of emergent order content flooding your way in those channels. I will also distribute the most interesting pieces in this newsletter.
I am working on several essays based on chapters from the book as well as an essay applying the principles of emergent leadership to antitrust policy. (The book already includes two policy case studies on privacy and content moderation.) In addition to the antitrust essay here are the pieces I’m planning:
An essay on how emergent order can help you break bad habits
An essay on how to lead without control
An essay on emergent leadership in public policy
Like I said, I’ll share those here once we get them published. If you happen to work at or run a publication that would be interested in publishing one of these essays, please reach out (nchilson@standtogether.org).
My team is also assembling a list of podcasts / radio shows that are interested in discussing my book. If you are interested in discussing the ideas of emergent order and how they apply to leadership, policy, and life on your podcast or show, please reach out (nchilson@standtogether.org).
Recent Related Outputs:
Re: Facebook banning certain NYU researchers, I did a twitter thread and an extended interview with the Columbia Journalism Review on the dustup. TL;DR - it’s more complicated than the reporting suggests.
My paper Seeing (Platforms) Like a State was just published. Several of the policy framework ideas in Getting Out of Control are based on that paper.
I caught this buttery brown trout about 30 minutes before leaving the Tech Policy Institute’s excellent Aspen Forum. (This is book-related, I swear - but you’ll have to buy it to find out how!)
Things I’ve Been Consuming:
Is this the catchiest children’s song ever? Pure pop magic.
Emergent Order Twitter: In the open world role-playing computer game Skyrim, no one designed it so that following foxes often leads to treasure - but it actually works!
Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life by Luke Burgis - Enjoying this thought-provoking book that describes practical applications of the theories of philosopher René Girard. I think mimetic desire (desire generated in reaction to the perceived desires of others) is an important feedback mechanisms in human society, but only one of them.
“Competition is by its nature a dynamic causal process of knowledge acquisition and learning whose essential characteristics are assumed away by equilibrium analysis.” -- Friedrich Hayek, abridged
Dynamic capabilities as (workable) management systems theory by David J. Teece - Still digesting this one, but it’s a fascinating history of systems theory as applied to business management - and then an extension of that history into what is known as the dynamic capabilities framework, which Teece originated.
Thanks for reading - and keep it out of control.