Self-organized complexity has been a personal interest of mine for a long time, probably ever since my late 20s, when I started attending the Burning Man festival. Since then, I've been drawn to a lot of related phenomenon, including looking at ants, science, life, note-taking, governance systems. I'm always drawn to simple rules that lead to complexity. I'm a simple person, with incredibly limited memory, and even more limited patience with layers of bureaucracy. My wife does 90% of the paperwork in our family. I don't like to have to remember intricate systems of rules. And yet, life is complex. Where does this complexity come from? Scientists have begun making a clear distinction between things that are complicated, and things that are complex. A lot of systems that humans build are complicated. Think of an aeroplane or a car. Complicated systems aspire to be predictable. But they are also fragile. When the environment changes drastically, they are unable to change and adapt. Complicated supply chains broke down during the pandemic. Complex systems, on the other hand, are adaptable. The human body can adapt and regulate its internal temperature even though the outside temperature may vary quite a bit. Because of my personal attraction towards simplicity and minimalism, I am fascinated by how simple rules can build up to great complexity. A quote that has been a mantra of mine belongs to Oliver Wendell Holmes: I don't give a fig for the simplicity on this side of complexity, but I'd give my life for the simplicity on the other side. One incarnation of this interest has been Sociocracy. In Sociocracy, I feel that I have found a complex governance system built on simple rules.