Decentralized systems are incomprehensible to centralized worldviews

Observation suggests that most people operate from a default worldview of centralization and hierarchy. Unless the cognitive effort is expended to understand how decentralized, non-hierarchical systems operate, they will be difficult (i.e., impossible) to understand.

… when we’re used to seeing something in a certain way, it’s hard to imagine it being any other way. If we’re used to seeing the world through a centralized lens, decentralized organizations don’t make much sense.[1]

#systems #decentralization #metacognition

See also:

  1. The Starfish and the Spider – Brafman and Beckstrom (2006), 33. ↩︎