A_Carr

I have a lot more than three sentences worth of thoughts about these readings, but I’ll try to limit myself.

In the DeLanda reading, his assertion that analyzing the whole in parts and then adding that up can cause one to miss properties that emerged from complex interactions between the parts is particularly important for the type of observation we will be doing. So in looking at data over time we will most likely see an expected pattern emerge, but among that data there will most likely be anomalies that may indicate something else emerging, and those anomalies are potentially more interesting or will become more relevant than the established pattern.

In the Jacobs reading she talks about patterns in an unpredictable system, and how you can’t really understand how a system started by looking at the end result. To try to predict based on historical patterns ignores the inevitability of change within a system.

Avoid generalization, simple explanations and pre-generated solutions or questions.