Quotes from Scott E. Page

diverse teams make better mousetraps.

For each individual among the many has a share of excellence and practical wisdom, and when they meet together, just as they become in a manner one man, who has many feet, and hands, and senses, so too with regard to their character and thought. Hence the many are better judges than a single man of music and poetry, for some understand one part, and some another, and among them they understand the whole. (Aristotle, Politics, book 3, chapter 11)

Often, scholars distinguish between complex systems—systems in which the entities follow fixed rules—and complex adaptive systems—systems in which the entities adapt. If the entities adapt, then the system has a greater capacity to respond to changes in the environment.

Progress depends as much on our collective differences as it does on our individual IQ scores.

If we can understand how to leverage diversity to achieve better performance and greater robustness, we might anticipate and prevent collapses.

the treasures hidden in the heavens so rich, precisely in order that the human mind shall never be lacking in fresh nourishment. —JOHANNES KEPLER

importance, essence, and averaging. The importance of diversity in complex systems is the central theme of this book. Why does diversity matter? What roles does it play? I show that diversity has many roles and effects. Diversity can provide insurance, improve productivity, spur innovation, enhance robustness, produce collective knowledge,

Concave functions have slopes that decrease. Concave functions with positive slopes exhibit diminishing returns:

creates synergies. It allows the whole to be more than the parts. And diversity between communities provides robustness to major changes.

diverse, connected, interdependent entities whose behavior is determined by rules, which may adapt, but need not. The interactions of these entities often produce phenomena that are more than the parts. These phenomena are called emergent.

A node's betweenness score equals the percentage of minimal paths that go through a node. In a social network, people with high betweenness scores know more information and wield more power.

When taking actions, wise people apply multiple models like a doctor's set of diagnostic tests. They use models to rule out some actions and privilege others. Wise people and teams construct a dialogue across models, exploring their overlaps and differences.

Mastery of models improves your ability to reason, explain, design, communicate, act, predict, and explore.

To rely on a single model is hubris.

The models that characterize the robustness of neuronal networks bear little resemblance to the molecular biology models used to explain brain cell function, which in turn differ from the psychological models used to explain cognitive biases.

Only through understanding do we have any hope of harnessing the enormous potential that the world possesses.

Figure 12.1: Maximal Entropy and Maximal Variance

In an optimization-based model, preferences or payoffs are fundamental. In a rule-based model, the behavior is fundamental. Behavioral rules can be fixed or adapt.

intervention can have large effects. To do that, we must undertake the relatively pedestrian exercises of defining the pieces and figuring out how those pieces fit together.

couldn't claim that I was smarter than sixty-five other guys—but the average of sixty-five other guys, certainly. —Richard Feynman

preventing riots depends less on reducing average levels of discontent than on appeasing people at the extreme.

when our thinking is informed by diverse logically consistent, empirically validated frames, we are more likely to make wise choices.

When scientists speak of diversity, they can mean any of three characteristics of a population. They can mean variation in some attribute, such as differences in the length of finches' beaks. They can mean diversity of types, such as different types of stores in a mall. Or they can mean differences in configuration, such as different connections between atoms in a molecule.

Systems that produce complexity consist of diverse rule-following entities whose behaviors are interdependent. Those entities interact over a contact structure or network. In addition, the entities often adapt.