The blog
Systems in the wild
Real-world systems — startups, markets, teams, society — modeled as causal loops and simulated, with the leverage points made visible.
- Jun 29, 2026 · 6 min Why your startup’s growth quietly stalls The same engine that makes a startup take off is what eventually caps it — unless you see the limit coming.
- Jun 28, 2026 · 6 min The burnout trap in a scaling team Heroics feel like leadership when the workload spikes. They are actually how a team quietly disables the only fix that would have saved it.
- Jun 27, 2026 · 6 min Why the worse technology won The better standard doesn’t always win. A tiny early lead, compounded, can starve a superior rival to death.
- Jun 26, 2026 · 6 min Why new lanes make traffic worse Widening the highway clears the jam for a year — then quietly fills it back up, worse than before. The structure explains why.
- Jun 25, 2026 · 6 min The outrage spiral, drawn as a loop Two camps think they’re defending themselves. The system they’re trapped in is escalating itself — and the algorithm is happy to help.
- Jun 24, 2026 · 6 min The price war nobody wins Each cut is individually rational. Together they hand the entire surplus to your customers and call it strategy.
- Jun 23, 2026 · 6 min Climate action is a stag hunt Everyone agrees on the best outcome. Low trust is why we keep settling for the worst one.
- Jun 22, 2026 · 6 min Why the gym empties by February You didn’t lose your willpower. The goal quietly moved to meet you — and you never noticed.
- Jun 21, 2026 · 6 min The overfishing trap, modeled Every fleet on the water is behaving rationally. That is exactly how they fish the sea empty.
- Jun 20, 2026 · 6 min How technical debt sinks a codebase No single shortcut ever felt big enough to stop and fix. That is exactly why the codebase eventually fell off a cliff.