This is a boring blog. You can jump a few paragraphs down to the punchline if you like (and the latest update, from October 2021). It's about the remarkable, indeed baffling, inefficiency of some big organisations, in this case Currys PC World. As a customer or passenger I can't help but notice how systems are organised - so this piece is about how even the most basic things can be got wrong and how they could be put right. It's about very trivial problems by comparison wi

This draft paper describes methods for understanding how vital everyday systems work, and how they could work better, through improved shared cognition - observation, memory, creativity and judgement – organised as commons. Much of our life we depend on systems: interconnected webs of activity that link many organisations, technologies and people. These bring us food and clothing; energy for warmth and light; mobility including rail, cars and global air travel; care, welfare