an even larger system of systems. This is not to say that systems imply order. Not even the terms “systemic” or “systematic,” although they are often used to suggest exactly that. On the contrary. There is an incredible amount of chaos occurring at every scale, in both natural and man-made systems. Systems of any type can be unpredictable and take on a life of their own. One look at the juggernaut of bureaucracy that is the United States federal government demonstrates this well without having to spend another breath to prove the point... I have been fortunate in life to have been thrown into situations where it seemed I was always forced to reverse engineer a vast assortment of systems. Most people call these situations “problems,” and I did too for many years. My early career began during the U.S. Army's transition into the post-Cold War era New Army. I served for nearly a decade, in the United States and abroad, participated in the administration of multinational task forces under the control of the United Nations, and built and managed the deployment facility for the USARPAC energy projection platform. I learned, by trial and error, the ins and outs of personnel management bureaucracy and how to design computer-based solutions to many problems. Contrary to popular belief, the Army has not been at all cutting edge in its attempts to automate even basic office documents, much less complex processes. Even in the mid-1990s we were still primarily using tally sheets, ledgers, and typewriters to perform division-level operations. The shining exception to this was Microsoft Powerpoint. Our generals lived and breathed their battle theaters through an endless barrage of Powerpoint presentation briefings. My first military achievement medal was an award... middle of paper... its reward Mapping Entity Relationships: What Software Teaches Us GrammarCooperative Evolution as a Systemic NormSpecialization Vs. generalizationDesigning with perpetuitySweet chaosDesigning with intentionalityThis cell is not big enough for the two of us: the prisoner's dilemmaPreserving Hammurabi's palaceKISSA LEGO™ in every jarEntropic Economics 101Two is one, one is noneGive me my damn Twinky!Natural Rights versus human rights A calendar for each season Can't a squirrel get a nut? Regulating By Mollison and Gall, Dawkins and Waal The lie of the dichotomy: Heads I win, Tails you lose When you piss in the global wind, we all get sued by WetWorks http: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_projectionhttp://systemic. permacultureuniversity.net/?p=3