“I like directing. It takes a lot out of you, but I'd like to do it again - I just have to find a story I want to tell.” Quote by Kevin Bacon
“I love the tradition of changing gowns throughout the reception. I know it's a little extravagant, but why not - it's your moment.” KnowsLittlesMomentsTraditionWhy NotYour MomExtravagantGownsReception Author:Austin Scarlett
“I do not believe that there is any person, method, or tool that can consistently and reliably predict specific human events, X- or otherwise.” BelieveHumansPersonsEventsToolsMethodConsistently Author:John L. Casti
“I believe is that we can forecast the "changing landscape of context," and thus get insight into when we are entering the danger zone of an X-event.” BelieveI BelieveEventsDangerInsightLandscapeZoneEnteringForecastsOf Context Author:John L. Casti
“If the group has a negative social mood, believing that tomorrow will be worse than today, the bias goes in the opposite direction. Instead of "welcoming" we have "rejecting," instead of "global" we tend to see events that are "local" and so forth.” IfsBelieveTodaySocialGroupsEventsTomorrowNegativeOppositesMoodLocalsWelcomeBiasRejecting Author:John L. Casti
“The global financial system consists of firms in the financial services sector - banks, hedge funds, insurance companies and the like - and various governmental agencies who are charged with regulating these firms.” CompanyFinancialVariousFirmAgencyFundInsurance CompaniesFinancial SystemHedge FundFinancial Services Author:John L. Casti
“From the 1990s onward, the financial sector created a vast array of instruments designed to separate investors from their money, financial derivatives of an ever-increasing level of complexity. At some point, this complexity reached a point where even the creators of the derivatives themselves didn't understand them.” LevelsInstrumentsFinancialCreatorComplexityInvestorsDerivatives Author:John L. Casti
“A good analogy is stretching a rubber band. You can stretch and stretch and even feel the tension increase in the muscles in your hands and arms as the gap from one end of the band to the other widens. But at some point you reach the limits of elasticity of the band and it snaps. The same thing happens with human systems.” FeelsHumansEndsHandsHappensArmsBandLimitsIncreaseThings HappenTensionMusclesGapsSnapsStretchingAnalogiesRubberElasticityRubber Bands Author:John L. Casti
“When the next big problem comes online, be it the Euro crisis, nuclear proliferation, an overstretched Internet, a killer flu, or any of the other possibilities I consider in X-Events, we will suffer a complexity overload.” ProblemBigsSufferingNextEventsPossibilityInternetCrisisNuclearComplexityOnlineKillersFluEuroBig ProblemsProliferationOverloadNuclear ProliferationEuro Crisis Author:John L. Casti
“The process of globalization has now interconnected almost everything ranging from financial markets to transport networks to communication systems in a huge system that no one really understands.” ProcessHugeCommunicationFinancialGlobalizationTransportInterconnectedFinancial Markets Author:John L. Casti
“System theorists know that it's easy to couple simple-to-understand systems into a "super system" that's capable of displaying behavioral modes that cannot be seen in any of its constituent parts. This is the process called "emergence."” KnowsEasyProcessSimpleCoupleCapableEmergenceConstituentsTheorists Author:John L. Casti