AFTERWORD NRaevfi lgea ct it ni ogn Ns eown TCwo mo Dp leecxai dt ieess : of Common Sense
When The Next Common Sense was first published in 1999, the world stood at the threshold of a new millennium. The dot-com bubble was nearing its peak, globalization was accelerating, and organizations were beginning to grapple with the implications of increasing interconnectedness. The book offered a perspective that was prescient in many ways, distinguishing between the “complicated” world of the past—characterized by discrete, analyzable elements—and the “complex” world of interwoven, emergent systems that was just beginning to reveal itself. Now, twenty-five years later, as we present this updated edition, it seems appropriate to reflect on what has changed, what has remained the same, and what lessons we might draw for the future. What Has Remained the Same Perhaps the most striking aspect of revisiting the original work is how many of its fundamental insights have stood the test of time: The distinction between complicated and complex remains es- sential. The original book’s core insight—that there is a fundamental difference between systems that are merely complicated (many parts but
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