Systems Brew

Evolution, Innovation, Diffusion, and Disruption

I drink a lot of tea, specifically English Breakfast, and have developed a ritual around my day’s first mug. Each day there is a moment which occurs the moment I pour a touch of milk into the warm brew. Something I heard long ago repeats softly in my thoughts. Years ago something I heard somewhere, long since forgotten, that the pillowy pattern of milk into brew was a good example of entropy. Each day, as I notice this, I remain fascinated by the patterns that emerge when order dissipates into my creamy cuppa.

I didn’t notice the first few times, I was not paying attention, I was at a cafe when it happened and my routine was altered. Of course! It made such sense. I enjoyed the behavior of playing with, making the tea disperse into the hot water within the paper cup. The interplay of the brown liquid through the clear fluid against the bright white internal of the cup - the reverse of my daily enthrall!

That I am captivated by such trivial things, humorous as it may be, is not the intention of this writing however. What occurred to me was that these routines can represent processes within systems. So, with your patience and quite unsure of how this will turn out, I offer you my first video infused writing. Okay, my first since 10th grade composition when we had to create what was my first ever multi-media presentation. I give you now, tea - in four-parts.

Evolution

In this clip the tea is concentrated within the confines of the satchel. How it got there is a remarkable tale all itself and one that many throughout history have written on. Ultimately there is a world of complexity within that perforated white packet. Now, let’s think of the water as representing action - a quantity of potential and kinetic energy. As you may remember, to have kinetic energy you need motion and to represent motion you introduce the concept of time. So, we might say the water represents time. The more water we add, the more tea we produce and the richer the color becomes.

Innovation

Now, let’s flip the order. In the cup we already have a lot of time (history one might say). To this we’re going to introduce the remarkable innovation of Tea! Are you as excited as I am !?

Hmm… That’s not very exciting though, is it ? No cool ASMR effect of Action pouring in nor much in the way of tea developing. Kind of a flop, right?

Diffusion

Maybe though we just need to allow more time.

When we do, we can start to see something is happening, but it’s proceeding rather slowly. Here we might even be tempted to think we can stop time, perhaps? Maybe if we just took a ladle to the top of the cup we could dip out some time before it becomes tea? What tends to happen though when we intervene. We end up with, the final topic of our systems view, that darling of business and media everywhere. Lets look at it first…

Disruption

Of course I wasn’t going to be able to dip out much with a wooden stir stick, hey, cut a fella some slack. Remember metaphors don’t need to be perfect. What happened though? As we agitated the cuppa, we ended up with a irreversible (well, without massive amounts of effort, technology, and $$$) with a homogenous state called Tea Which brings us full circle. How you wonder? Well, allow me to explain.

My routine begins with my mug. My mug is a lovely hand-crafted, slightly wonky affair which I have genuine affection for. To this I add my favorite tea from Marks & Spencer. Here I’ve had to improvise a bit as they seem to have changed their products around and I’m unable to identify or find (not sure which?) my previous silver. Which means, I now must suffer with their extremely smooth, gold brand. Pfft. Compromises I tell ya.

Next I pop this into my mug, boil the water in my electric kettle. Yeah yeah.. I still have a stove-top one too, but this is an appliance I derive joy from its use. And once it beeps, I pour. I suspect, if I’ve done a half-assed decent job of writing, that you’re beginning to see where I’m going with this. Here is where I would normally pour my milk into the dark brew within able now to notice the contrast between my milk and the rich brown brew within. Entropy. Order → Disorder → New Order. Yes, I always think of that band too but please focus…

Walla! The mug! System blindness, the solid form of the clay mug prevented me from seeing the same effect embedded within. Does this mean I want a transparent pyrex type of mug? Definitely not. I’m sticking with my wonky ceramic thank you very much.

However, recognizing this now, I realize the benefits I’ve had all along of tea first, then water (time). These cycles seem to compound upon each other. In a way, cycling entropy, moving from one stable form to another. Sometime we recognize and appreciate the occurrence - such as when we add milk to tea. Other times we may not be paying attention, but it is still there, such as adding hot water into the dark mug. And of course, there are those times we do not care for as well.

The last video is shot in time-lapse, with a steady hand as you can tell. This represents a bit of the time-compression we’re currently experiencing. Evolution, Innovation, Diffusion, and Disruption are happening at non-linear rates (more on this another time) today which generates complexity at an accelerating rate. Its uncomfortable, sometimes unwanted, but we all need to cope with it and make our way through the pillowy uncertainty, just like the creme into the tea. Just like we cannot get back to tea from creme tea, water from tea, time moves in only one direction and whether we like it or not, Ai is here and the only direction now is forward.