Engines of Creation

Episode 10 | On Festive Readings and Listenings | Recommendations for Winter Break Learnings

There are lot of interesting interviews lined up, but life gets in the way, so they will be released in 2024, please subscribe to the channel to get them as soon as they are published.
I thought it would be nice to drop some suggestions for reading and listenings during the Festive break.
Here some books:
Incerto Series by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
The (Mis)Behaviour of Markets: A Fractal View of Risk, Ruin and Reward by Benoit Mandelbrot
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
What's Our Problem?: A Self-Help Book for Societies by Tim Urban
The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by  by David Graeber and David Wengrow
Why Information Grows: The Evolution of Order, from Atoms to Economies by Cesar Hidalgo
How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of Intangibles in Business by Douglas W. Hubbard
Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter
Here some podcasts and Newsletters:
Wait but Why by Tim Urban
Exponential View by Azeem Azhar
Mindscape Podcast by Sean Carroll
Lex Fridaman's Podcast
I hope you will enjoy them and let me know your thoughts at enginesofcreation@mastrodonato.co. 
Please share this episode if you enjoyed it to let this podcast grow. 

Episode 9 | On Megaprojects | Book UnReview on How Big Things Get Done

And now, for something completely different, as Monty Python would say, we are going to experiment with a different kind of episode: a book UnReview. I've been toying with this idea for quite some time. There are some books that have really helped me shape new ideas and better frame and link old ones. Although it would be great to discuss those books with the authors, I'm not always able to get in contact with them and have them on the podcast. On the other hand, simply giving you a simple review of the book would be redundant, as you can easily go to Amazon or Kobo and read it yourself.
But for me, reading a book is an experience, one that I try to convey every time I talk with an author. I believe it is valuable to discuss the content of these books and possibly convince you that they are worth your time to read. In fact, you should never be satisfied with what I'm going to say; reading the books is always the best choice.
We will start with a book that I recently read, which has been truly eye-opening for me. The book is called How Big Things Get Done by Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner. The subtitle of the book is "The Surprising Factors Behind Every Successful Project, from Home Renovations to Space Exploration". Interestingly enough, these factors were not that surprising to me, as I have encountered most of them in the different projects I have worked on throughout my career. However, seeing them all presented in this clear and concise way brought a completely different perspective, which was indeed surprising!
Furthermore, I am excited to delve deeper into Megaprojects, which are a great example of applied complexity. I plan to have some future guests who can provide insights on this topic, and this book serves as a perfect backdrop for those future conversations. Stay tuned to find out more, and if you haven't already, please hit the subscribe button now!
Instead of discussing the core takeaways or sharing my impressions about the book, I will start from the end - specifically, the final chapter known as the coda. I want to focus on the 11 heuristics for better project leadership that are presented in this chapter, and how they relate to concepts of complexity thinking and effective management in a broader sense. I encourage you to read the book to fully understand how the authors developed these heuristics, as that is the true strength of the book. By discussing the end, I aim to provide you with some food for thought without spoiling any major details.
References and Links
>> How Big Things Get Done by Professor Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner
>> Episode 4 | On Survival and Adaptation | Interview with Luca Dellanna
>> Ergodicity by Luca Dellanna 
>> Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman 

Episode 8 | On Human Complexity | Interview with Luca Minudel

In this episode we are meeting a wonderful guest, Luca Minudel, an expert agile practitioner who works at the forefront of novel methodologies to improve the way we work and create value. Luca worked in very interesting companies, as we’ll soon find out, but more importantly he is also a practitioner of Complexity Thinking and he wrote a very helpful book titled Living complexity, about how to manage and exploit Human complexity.
Talking about the definition of complexity and human complexity, Luca shared practical examples of complex problems, like COVID-19, conflicts between stakeholders, limited information/understanding, and constantly changing issues. Emphasising the importance of adapting approaches based on the degree of complexity.
We also talked about his book "Living Complexity", and how in the process of writing it Luca discovered three "regions" of practices - self-organisation, assessing/adapting to complexity, and organisational practices, providing practical tools for dealing with complexity across these three regions.
In particular we discussed on how frameworks like Cynefin can be useful starting points for assessing complexity, also going through an example to help categorise project complexity levels.
On the relationship between agile and complexity, Luca sees agile methods as tools to help absorb uncertainty and move problems from complex to complicated/ordered spaces. But he views complexity science and agility as broader than just agile software methods.
The conversation then shifts to Luca's process of writing his book, "Living Complexity." Discussing how the book went through several versions and iterations, guided by feedback and further research. We highlighted the significance of being a practitioner and implementing ideas in real-world scenarios. Luca believes that practical application is essential for truly understanding and harnessing the power of complexity.
As the discussion continues, Luca delves into the characteristics of a leader in the face of complexity. He stresses the importance of awareness, both of oneself and the system in which one operates. Collaboration and involving those affected by decisions are also crucial, as complex problems require diverse perspectives and collective intelligence. Resilience is another key trait, as complex issues often evolve and demand ongoing attention. Finally, transparency is vital to foster trust and create an environment where complexity can be navigated effectively.
Overall, Luca's insights provide a thoughtful list of qualities to reflect on, giving us a fresh perspective on complexity and its role in our lives. He challenges the notion that complexity is always negative and encourages embracing it as a source of joy and growth. By understanding and applying complexity in practical ways, we can navigate complex problems more effectively and lead with greater awareness and resilience.
References:
Living Complexity - Luca Minudel
Cynefin - Weaving Sense-Making into the Fabric of Our World Paperback
How we can teach children so they survive AI – and cope with whatever comes next

Episode 7 | On Systems and Layers | Interview with John V Willshire

In this episode we will delve into the interesting world of System Design, and we’ll do it with an incredible thinker like John Willshire, founder of Smithery and Professor of Innovation and Future Thinking at the Design School IED in Barcelona.
Interestingly it seems that to work in System Design, you need to be an anti-disciplinarian, as suggested by Gianni Giacomelli in the last podcast episode, and John is clearly so, since our conversation spans from technology to poetry.
We will start talking about how looking at information as light can provide a different perspective on how to approach data problems, and we’ll soon move into describing the new design framework named Zenko mapping. 
Besides finding out what Zenko are in Japanese Folklore, we’ll look into Stewart Brand’s great ideas of the buildings shearing layers and the social pace layers and how they can be combined to map new products and services journeys.
We will also look into how Nassim Taleb’s antifragility framework can act as a reference system to explore sustainability and regenerations, and how these 2 concepts albeit similar can lead to completely different journeys.
Finally John will tell us how Bergson and Long term thinking can make us better leaders.
Links:
Smithery’s website - https://smithery.com/
Information as light blog - https://smithery.com/2020/12/10/think-of-information-as-light-not-liquid/
Zenko Mapping video - https://smithery.com/2021/02/27/zenko-mapping-inception-and-pace-layers-wiad2021
Regenerative design blog - https://smithery.com/2023/06/06/exploring-regenerative-triangulation/
Stewart Brand - How Buildings Learn
Stewart Brand - The Clock of the Long Now
Richard Sennet - The Craftsman
Richard Sennet  - Together
Richard Sennet  - Buildings and Dwellings
Eric Raymond - The Cathedral and The Bazaar
Nassim Nicholas Taleb - Antifragile

Episode 6 | On Collective Intelligence | Interview with Gianni Giacomelli

In this new episode we are meeting a great new guest Gianni Giacomelli, Gianni is a fellow member of the Exponential Do community, and he is the Head of Design Innovation at the MIT Centre for Collective Intelligence, and we are going to dive with him in the fascinating field  of augmented collective intelligence.
When in this podcast we talk about Intelligence, we usually look at it as an emergent phenomenon of complex computational topologies, this is called emergentist explanation and it is the closest to complex system theory, but it is not the only possible way to explain intelligence, David Chalmers called it the Hard Problem of Consciousness, and for example if you are interested to alternative explanations you might want to look into  “idealist” approaches like the ones from Bernardo Karstrup or Donald Hoffman, I personally find Hoffman’s approach particularly interesting, also, but not only, for its similarities with Wolfram’s computational approach in his Physics Project.
As we said, though, we are going to stick to the emergentist view, which is particularly valuable for us since one of the theses of this podcast is that innovation is an emergent phenomenon that arises from complex human network topologies (within a specific organization or inter-organization of course), which creates a direct link with collective intelligence,  even if probably collective intelligence can explain much more than innovation, given its ties with sociology and social sciences.
What we are going to discover today is what happens when you augment collective intelligence, and Gianni will give us plenty of practical examples, 
Starting from a definition of augmented collective intelligence we will immediately dive into its implications in innovation, underlining how innovation at operational level is as important if not more than at technology level. We will also discuss the impact of remote working in organizations and how managing weak social network ties is the key to success.
Continuing our conversation about organizations, we will understand how looking at their complex system dynamics can help us identify the key elements to design and  transform them into super-minds.
This will lead us to discuss about the combination of artificial and human collective intelligence, and we will see some interesting examples across Merger&Acquisitions, Sales and R&D.
So what is the key to become an enabler  of augmented collective intelligence? According to Gianni, and I couldn’t agree more,  it is to be an anti-disciplinarian, working across boundaries and becoming a T-shaped individual. 
Relevant links:
Gianni Giacomelli's website 
MIT Centre for Collective Intelligence Website
Social Physics: How Good Ideas Spread

Episode 5 | On Partnership | Interview with Aleksander Poniewierski

In this episode we are meeting Aleksander Poniewierski, Aleksander is partner in EY and he leads the consulting practise for Digital and Emerging technologies, not only he brings a huge breadth of experience in implementing new innovative solutions, but  he managed to condense all this knowledge in a very interesting book title Speed No limits in the digital era, which will be the center of our conversation. I’ll leave a link to the book in the podcast description.
Our conversation will be greatly focused about partnerships, since I believe this is one of the most under-rated tool to manage complexity and create vale, and Aleksander will guide us into how partnership evolved across the different industrial revolutions, with several examples from his own (and his son’s) experience, and from the latest technological evolutions within Generative AI.
Generative AI will be touched several times during our conversation, in particular when talking about Emerging Technologies, together with Digital Twins, and Innovative Business Models.
Finally we will discuss how organizations are much slower than technologies  to evolve, and how you need to manage both rabbits and turtles to achieve success.
Link to Aleksander Poniewierski's book SPEED no limits in the digital era.

Episode 4 | On Survival and Adaptation | Interview with Luca Dellanna

In this episode we are going to meet Luca Dellanna, an expert in people and operations management, and one of my favourite contemporary authors, who can cover extremely complex topics alway providing clear and practical examples to relate them to our daily experience, as you will soon find out.
In this conversation we will mainly discuss about 2 of his books, which cover topics strictly related to the field of complexity. 
One book is titled Ergodicity, and it explains very clearly how this Statistical Physics and Chaos Theory concept has deep implications in our daily life and decisions. We will start from a practical example that will lead us to a clear definition, and we will learn what can be the strategies to keep non-ergodicity under control, in particular talking about the value of redistribution. Finally in this first part we will discuss how ergodicity plays an important role in survival fitness, and that you have to push natural selection as deep as you can within you, to have less chances it will apply over you.
In the second part we will discuss another of his books, Teams are Adaptive Systems, where we will delve into the concept of Complex Adaptive Systems, and we will learn how ethical and value based behaviour can provide a competitive advantage to managers. Furthermore we will find out how feedback loops, so important to define intelligence in human beings (and possibly also in artificial beings), play a good part in team management to avoid stupid behaviours.
We will conclude by discussing how a leader who embraces complexity needs to focus on managing it rather than controlling it, by managing risks and looking at the adaptations she promotes.
Links to:
Luca Dellanna Website 
Ergodicity 
Teams are Adaptive Systems

Episode 3 | On Openness | Interview with Kevin Marks

On today’s episode we are going to meet a real Web pioneer, Kevin Marks, if you don’t know him I suggest you look at the Wikipedia page dedicated to him, because, yes the guests of this podcast do have their own Wikipedia page :) 
Kevin is a SW Engineering expert who worked in companies like Apple, Google and Salesforce and have been at the forefront of Digital Innovation from the 90s. He brings a look that spans the whole horizon of how the digital industry has evolved so far and can evolve in the future. 
During our conversation we will discuss how abstraction layers can commodify industry sectors, and how this evolution towards commodities can be described using tools like Wardley Maps, but also how looking into what didn’t work can help making sense of the complex fractals of these nested abstraction layers.
In the second part of our conversation we will turn our attention towards Open models, looking at examples in the web like micro-formats as well as in the larger digital industry how open source set a standard for distributed governance, and we will close talking about what the approaches from companies like Apple, Google and Microsoft can tell us about how to find the right balance.