Square and the Tower
A "recasting of the turning points in world history, including the one we're living through, as a struggle between old power hierarchies and new social networks"--Dust jacket.
Stats for nerds
9recommend
20mentions
11people
2018–2024years
65% recommend35% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- History read alone without reading Sociology is how the older gen parsed reality cause they never had access to as much multi diciplinary info as we do today.
Today we don't read history of one man or one group alone because its like paying attention to a small part of much larger ever changing systems.
Its like studying hurricanes. These dynamical systems are not controllable by anyone because they are so massive and interconnected with things happening much much further away from the center that draws everyones focus.
So how does society cope with that level of uncontrollabilty?
You have to look at what sociologists like Ulrich Beck or Zygmunt Bauman have to say or even Niall Fergusons Square and the Tower.
- Here's a bunch that are on the bookshelf at the moment:
- Information Rules - Carl Shapiro & Hal Varian
- Normal Accidents - Charles Perrow
- Why Buildings Stand Up: The Strength of Architecture - Mario Salvadori
- Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief - Jordan Peterson
- The Power Broker - Robert Caro
- Political Order and Political Decay - Francis Fukuyama
- The Creators - Daniel Boorstin
- The Square and the Tower - Niall Ferguson
- Niall Ferguson's Square and the Tower - power is all about your network. Wealth can most definately buy you a network quick, but those networks are more fragile than established entrenched ones.
- Recommend - Niall Ferguson's book The Square and the Tower about how the same networks exist in all communities - science, business, politics etc etc.
As to the journos, human behavior doesn't change so easily by just showing people their issues.
In fact if they feel judged too much, they can get more defensive about their behavior or aggressively attack those pointing at it. The fact that analysis of behavior happens publicly, makes unproductive outcomes even more likely. It just creates spiraling reaction counter-reaction cycles.
You can see how well the approach has worked with changing Trump's behavior, even though there are huge armies of people pointing out and documenting his issues day and night seemingly without any awareness that all that work has not changed outcomes.
Plus expecting behavior change on top of a social media architecture skewed to self promotion and engagement is unrealistic.
So cut the journos some slack. The possible solutions are half baked or constrained by the operating environment, with barely any examples of solutions that have produce good outcomes.
- What people haven't realized is you dont need to think in terms of Hierarchy anymore.
Which is the way people have thought about anything for thousands of years. Fitting into domination or skill based hierarchies was optimal when resources where limited.
The Network and its explosion in the last 20-30 (not even one generation old) challenges the reliance on anything Hierarchical. Just one example - I can connect to my boss's boss's boss with a tweet or an email or whatsapp message and establish a connection. A deep one if I am of value. I dont need to go through my boss or through multiple levels anymore. It changes everything. The more networked everything gets the harder and harder its going to get for hierarchies to maintain their stability.
Why are Experts and Famous people's weaknesses so easy to find and pounce on today? Because of the network.
Stop thinking about Hierarchies and how to climb up or what pushes ppl down. Its outdated. Those who climb and pretend there is some safe summit, their weaknesses will be scrutinized by thousands more people than in the past. You can see it from Obama to Gates to Trump to Xi to your favorite scientist or celeb who has fallen from grace.
So think about Networks. Think about how they are created, how connections strengthen, how two networks connect, how to grow them etc. Networks change the value of all people. Just as in the Brain. There is no one extraordinary neuron.
Book recos - Niall Ferguson - The Square and the Tower - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07KKYostAJ0
Albert-László Barabási - The Formula
Moises Naim - The end of power
The Hierarchies of Skill and Domination will continue to face major pressure the likes they haven't seen in the past from ever changing network configurations.
- Forward looking:
Disunited Nations: The Scramble for Power in an Ungoverned World
Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist
AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order
Historical:
The Birth of Plenty: How the Prosperity of the Modern World was Created
Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty
General:
Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
The Square and the Tower: Networks and Power, from the Freemasons to Facebook
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