1. The Primal Scenario or Basic Datum of Experience: Systems in general work poorly or not at all. (Complicated systems seldom exceed five percent efficiency.)
2. The Fundamental Theorem: New systems generate new problems.
3. The Law of Conservation of Anergy [sic]: The total amount of anergy in the universe is constant. (“Anergy” = ‘human energy’)
4. Laws of Growth: Systems tend to grow, and as they grow, they encroach.
5. The Generalized Uncertainty Principle: Systems display antics. (Complicated systems produce unexpected outcomes. The total behavior of large systems cannot be predicted.)
6. Le Chatelier’s Principle: Complex systems tend to oppose their own proper function. As systems grow in complexity, they tend to oppose their stated function.
7. Functionary’s Falsity: People in systems do not actually do what the system says they are doing.
8. The Operational Fallacy: The system itself does not actually do what it says it is doing.
9. The Fundamental Law of Administrative Workings (F.L.A.W.): Things are what they are reported to be. The real world is what it is reported to be. (That is, the system takes as given that things are as reported, regardless of the true state of affairs.)
10. Systems attract systems-people. (For every human system, there is a type of person adapted to thrive on it or in it.) [eg: watch out for contributors who dominate your community]
11. The bigger the system, the narrower and more specialized the interface with individuals.
12. A complex system cannot be “made” to work. It either works or it doesn’t.
13. A simple system, designed from scratch, sometimes works.
14. Some complex systems actually work.
15. A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that works.
16. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over, beginning with a working simple system.
17. The Functional Indeterminacy Theorem (F.I.T.): In complex systems, malfunction and even total non-function may not be detectable for long periods, if ever.
18. The Newtonian Law of Systems Inertia: A system that performs a certain way will continue to operate in that way regardless of the need or of changed conditions.
19. Systems develop goals of their own the instant they come into being.
20. Intrasystem [sic] goals come first.
21. The Fundamental Failure-Mode Theorem (F.F.T.): Complex systems usually operate in failure mode.
22. A complex system can fail in an infinite number of ways. (If anything can go wrong, it will.) (See Murphy’s law.)
23. The mode of failure of a complex system cannot ordinarily be predicted from its structure.
24. The crucial variables are discovered by accident.
25. The larger the system, the greater the probability of unexpected failure.
26. “Success” or “Function” in any system may be failure in the larger or smaller systems to which the system is connected.
27. The Fail-Safe Theorem: When a Fail-Safe system fails, it fails by failing to fail safe.
28. Complex systems tend to produce complex responses (not solutions) to problems.
29. Great advances are not produced by systems designed to produce great advances.
30. The Vector Theory of Systems: Systems run better when designed to run downhill.
31. Loose systems last longer and work better. (Efficient systems are dangerous to themselves and to others.)
32. As systems grow in size, they tend to lose basic functions.
33. The larger the system, the less the variety in the product.
34. Control of a system is exercised by the element with the greatest variety of behavioral responses.
35. Colossal systems foster colossal errors.
36. Choose your systems with care.

“Even though the world footballer of the year has not requested a transfer from Milan and is contracted to the club until 2012, he has been unsettled by their handling of him in recent months. The 26-year-old was prevented from representing Brazil at the Olympics in Beijing despite his club allowing summer signing Ronaldinho to play and last week the club’s doctor questioned Kaká’s decision to undergo close-season knee surgery.”

Thanks to the piece in today’s Observer. Hmm, now if Brazil’s football team win the Olympics, that might just tip the balance?

Thanks to post from Matt Rhodes, of the FreshNetworks Blog, which flagged this up and who makes the excellent point which serves to underline the distinctive value of online communities, especially in an enterprise context:

“For me the most interesting comment is that contributions in online communities and forums are ‘give and take’ and like a ‘casual conversation’ rather than published and printed material. This is certainly more akin to the kind of conversations and contributions we see on our communities at FreshNetworks, as I’m sure it is for anybody else with experience in this area.”

Full spec of the regeneration for Barking centre square here; Muf architecture art were commissioned to design a new Town Square for Barking, which is designated as one of the Mayor of London’s 100 Public Spaces.

Ironic that with the Great British Beer Festival on this week the news that Cains Beer Company PLC – in administration. Looks like they had bad luck with the smoking ban, plus ran up a large tab with HMRC.

Apple chaos theory by ZDNet‘s Dennis Howlett — I got a fairly lukewarm response to my excitement over Oracle putting applications on the iPhone. That should be no surprise to readers of Fortune which also poured cold water on the idea that iPhone’s are going to be the next big thing in corporate gadgets: Companies in highly visual industries like insurance and media might [...]

 Not to mention (thanks @guykawasaki) Watching Apple ad: What exactly is 3G? “The Internet Twice as Fast” How about 1/2 the battery life and dropped calls?

“YAY! The long awaited, much promised, never delivered Delicious 2.0 will launch in the next few minutes, just like they promised again last week.

“The new Delicious is just like the old Delicious, except for the way it looks. They’re also promising that it will be “faster, easier to learn,” and “hopefully more desirable.”

Must say that it looks miles better to me, especially like the tags layout, helps me look professional with limited time. Nice. Good job.

After years of proposing, theorizing and deducing that there is water on Mars — at least in the form of ice — NASA scientists said yesterday they have finally confirmed it, after the Phoenix lander detected traces of water vapor wafting off a scoop of Martian dirt, researchers said yesterday.

“It’s something we’ve been waiting quite a while for,” said William Boynton of the University of Arizona, describing how an tiny “oven” on the lander heated the dirt until ice mixed with it evaporated. “We’ve now finally touched it and tasted it.”

See they’ve been searching for water for a while now, starting with the Moon.

PS: It’s a solar eclipse today 1 August, which thanks to NASA you could watch online from the UK. But if you missed it here’s my animoto version.