If there is one thing I find frustrating about Washington DC, its the lack of policy chops when it comes to understanding complex systems. The think tanks offer a lot of perspectives but when it comes to economics and other social sciences, I find PhDs, analysts and other to fall into position, arguments, and research that mimics the 1800s at best.
It was a privilege to receive a full ride scholarship for the New England Complex Systems Institute weeklong executive education. The room was filled with people from around the world and in the US, many folks from the Department of Defense and other folks that want to better understand such aspects of systems. Yaneer Bar-Yam is one of the smartest people out there that has been working in the complex systems space for decades.
One of his guest speakers was my favorite author, Nassim Taleb, who spoke on anti-fragility. Nassim was thoughtful and offered a perspective that is not understood much less embraces by academics today.
It is my hope that academics, practitioners and others interested in public policy start to learn about complex systems as it relates to our foreign policy, education, health care and other systems that require and much more rigorous analysis than what is being done today.
