Managing Software for Growth: Without Fear, Control, and the Manufacturing Mindset

Self-Organization

When all of us are interacting by applying these simple rules, we are self-organizing. Bounded groups form. This happens organically, without any external control. There is no single individual out there saying, “Form an economy, and form it this way.” In some cases, there were some individuals who try to do that, but most societies and organizations and economies arose naturally, simply by having people, as Kauffman put it, trade their stuff. From this we get Adam Smith's invisible hand. The economy seems to follow a script nobody wrote. It works without a puppet master. Even the United States Federal Reserve can't say, “Let's not have a recession.” We may end up with one anyway, despite the Fed's efforts to stave one off. ...