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- Trump kicks off sale of $2.3bn Truth Social stake
- A study shows that individuals who have lied once are likely to lie again in similar situations, whereas honest and humble people lie less often. Researchers also found a link between dishonest behavior and certain personality traits.
- U.S. Lifts Sanctions on Wife of Russian Billionaire and close Putin friend Rotenberg
- Russian strategic bomber crashes in Siberia, one person dead, governor says
- Glitter is widely used in cosmetics, arts and crafts, fashion, and holiday decorations to add sparkle, but ends up in the ocean. Glitter microplastics disrupt marine biomineralisation of shells and skeletons, and degrade more rapidly in seawater, releasing smaller micro- and nanoplastic fragments.
- Norway, Ukraine in Talks to Co-Produce New Air Defense Missile
- Trump admin locking up families, children at NY-Canada crossings
- Study finds strongest evidence yet that shingles vaccine helps cut dementia risk | A natural experiment on the effect of herpes zoster vaccination on dementia
- Trump signs order to set up new entity to take over Biden’s Chips Act program
- New research estimates that the 34 largest Bitcoin mining operations in the United States consumed more electricity in 2022 than all of Los Angeles combined. 85% of the electricity came from fossil fuels and exposed 1.9 million Americans to more than 0.1 μg/m3 of additional PM2.5 pollution.
- Exclusive: DOGE official at DOJ bragged about hacking, distributing pirated software
- UK newly requires everyone working for Russia to register their activities
- Social Security Website Crashes as DOGE-Linked Disruption at the Agency Continues
- A “weekend warrior” approach to physical activity — getting 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity over one to two days instead of throughout the week — improved health and lowered the risk of death, finds a new study of more than 93,000 people.
- The FAA hiding private jet details might not stop celebrity jet trackers | One jet tracker says he doesn’t rely on the FAA database to identify jets anyway.
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2024
The simplest and most accurate way to think about systems is as structures designed to persist across time. For both individuals and organizations, persistence is fundamentally about maintaining relevance and continuity within a broader context. This drive can be seen as a form of programming—biological, cultural, or organizational—manifesting through strategies, structures, and adaptations aimed at survival.
Abstractions, such as “freedom” or “democracy,” serve as the conceptual cores of systems. These are not self-sufficient; they require reconciliation through rules and shared participation to transition into operational realities. Systems often overlap and nest, forming complex webs of dependencies, much like interconnected ecosystems. This layering allows for both stability and evolution, where contradictions act as tension points that either strengthen or dismantle the system.
Network effects amplify the power of systems. The more participants align with a system, the stronger its influence and resilience. Systems with tangible anchors—real-world utilities like infrastructure or healthcare—tend to thrive over purely imagined constructs, though the latter can profoundly shape societies when tied to collective aspirations.
Companies are specialized systems, leveraging abstractions like “profit” or “value creation” to direct resources toward specific goals. Their success lies in their ability to integrate into broader networks while ensuring their own survival. Scale is not the ultimate measure; impact within interconnected systems is.
Ultimately, persistence across all systems, from biological to imagined, reflects a singular logic: to endure. Change arises as systems evolve to resolve contradictions or adapt to new realities. The key to progress lies in sustaining efforts toward coherence, adaptability, and collective benefit—ensuring the enduring vitality of the human experience and the structures we create.
For the individual, this framework offers insight into navigating complexity: participation in systems often requires reconciling personal desires with the broader needs of the collective. The challenge lies in balancing immediate contributions with the enduring mechanics of systems—whether biological, cultural, or economic.
Locke