Tag Archives: aggregate collective collaborative risk management laws of thermodynamics

Aggregate, Collective, and Collaborative

For some time I’ve been saying that aggregate damage requires collective action. Recently I ran across a slightly different take on that:

Collective adversity mandates collaborative adaptation

Hal S. Knowles, III, Coordinator, Program for Resource Efficient Communities, University of Florida, 13 Feb 2006

I found this quote used by someone else as a one sentence summary of the social effects of the three laws of thermodynamics (often paraphrased as you can’t win, you can’t break even, and you can’t get out of the game). It may be true that you, singular, can’t win, etc. But we can win if we collaborate and adapt….

Now that’s risk management!

-jsq