About

We live in a world where our civilization and daily lives depend upon institutions, infrastructure, and technological substrates that are complicated but not unknowable.

I've run a few software companies, ran the U.S.'s vaccine location information infrastructure for a while (long story), and have written extensively on the software business, financial infrastructure, and similar.

Over the years, I've met many other people who share my interest in systems thinking. We are frequently frustrated about the level of discourse. "Everything is broken!", "That's totally random!", "Late stage capitalism!", etc.

In this podcast, I interview people who have built things and are experts in them. We share the warts-and-all stories of how systems and institutions work. Some portion of the explanation is about physical and technical reality. Some part is a bit squishier, about incentives, culture, and history. Hopefully you'll find it interesting and useful.

Obligatory disclaimers: I'm a (tiny) angel investor. I previously worked at, and am still an advisor to, Stripe. Everything I say in my personal spaces is my own opinion, and many not be endorsed by other organizations I am affiliated with, or have been affiliated with.

Transcripts

Complex Systems is primarily an audio production, but as a courtesy to our audience, we put substantial effort into producing transcripts. We do not reproduce the spoken word verbatim, like a court transcript would, but rather edit what was said so the conversation is presented in the best possible written English. We do this through a combination of AI tools and hand edits, either through a professional transcriptionist, through our production staff, or through the host, Patrick McKenzie.

We also customarily include post-conversation notes with transcripts, called out like this: [Patrick notes: Relatedly, I've often thought that...] The notes are our own editorial judgement, inspired by the point in the conversation they appear, and will not necessarily be a response to the guest or something they would necessarily agree (or disagree) with.

If you ever feel that a transcript as delivered does not accurately represent what a guest said, feel free to send us email.