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Thomas Kuhn was a philosopher whose groundbreaking 1962 book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, is credited with bringing the term paradigm shift to pop culture. Kuhn described how scientific communities stick to established paradigms, even as evidence of their limitations mounted. Widely accepted paradigms for understanding and interpreting knowledge dont crumble under the weight of mere data. Instead, they tend to persist until a crisis emergeswhen anomalies become so disruptive that a shift to a new paradigm is unavoidable. Zoning was established in the early 20th century as a way to protect homeowners from unwanted industrial developments nearby. It was pitched as a way to separate heavy industry from residential areas, which made practical sense at a time when factories polluted neighborhoods. Early industrial cities were notorious for their noise, filth, sickness, and all-around misery. The wealthy had options, so theyd put some distance between themselves and factory life. You can imagine that the elite would want to guarantee never having to deal with the industrial riffraff. Zoning would give such guarantees. You can also imagine that social workers and other empaths would want to guarantee the poor and middle class had the same separation from the dirty parts of a city as the elites had. Zoning would give such guarantees. {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"","headline":"Urbanism Speakeasy","description":"Join Andy Boenau as he explores ideas that the infrastructure status quo would rather keep quiet. To learn more, visit urbanismspeakeasy.com.","substackDomain":"https:\/\/www.urbanismspeakeasy.com\/","colorTheme":"blue","redirectUrl":""}} But zoning wasnt used merely as a tool to separate heavy industry from residential zones. Local power brokers segregated all the land usesseparating single-family homes from apartments, office buildings from retail, residential from retail, and so on. The regulatory framework became so normalized in America that its hard for people to imagine life without it: Without zoning, my neighbor might build a strip club and a paper mill. Unintended consequences Normal science, the activity in which most scientists inevitably spend almost all of their time, is predicated on the assumption that the scientific community knows what the world is like. Much of the success of the enterprise derives from the communitys willingness to defend that assumption, if necessary, at considerable cost. As Kuhn wouldve predicted, the normal science of zoning has produced a number of anomalies that increasingly contradict zonings purported benefits. Housing Expense and Shortage: By restricting a variety of housing sizes and types, zoning codes limit the supply of housing, driving up prices and making places unaffordable for many residents. Environmental Degradation: Zoning encourages urban sprawl by pushing residential development outward into zones that are only practically reachable by car. Zoning codes create low-density, car-centric development, at great expense to our natural environment. Social Segregation: Zoning is a devilish segregation tool. Throughout pre-zoning history, cities had opportunities for people from all walks of life, social standing, and economic standing. Economic Stagnation and Opportunity Costs: By prohibiting a mixture of land uses in a neighborhood, zoning limits economic activity, making it difficult for small businesses to thrive in residential neighborhoods or for residents to access amenities without a car. Car Dependency: Neighborhood pharmacies are outlawed, so you drive to CVS just to get a birthday card. Neighborhood restaurants are outlawed, so you drive your kids to Chick-fil-A. Neighborhood salons are outlawed, so you drive to get your nails done. A resilient paradigm Changing a paradigm isnt just about accepting new facts, its about challenging an entire worldview, and thats something humans are generally reluctant to do. And in spite of all its harms, the zoning paradigm remains resilient among the experts because: Planning departments are organized around zoning administration. Professional credentialing still lionizes zoning codes. University programs train students to use zoning for the greater good. Thousands of attorneys specialize in zoning law. Lobbying pressure remains intense from industries that benefit from strict land-use policies. There are powerful incentives to preserve the system, even among professionals who privately acknowledge its failures. Kuhn observed that paradigms persist not because they work well, but because entire careers, departments, and professional identities are built upon them. Challenging zoning means threatening not just an idea, but the livelihoods and expertise of countless people. Much like a fundamentalist belief system, zoning has developed a language of justification that makes it difficult to challenge. Clever defenses like preserving neighborhood character or protecting property values are invoked to defend restrictive zoning policies, even when these policies have been proven to harm the vast majority of people. Zoning defenders use language not to inform, but to deflect and manipulate. A tipping point Kuhn would say a paradigm shift requires a moment of crisis, a point at which the old framework can no longer explain or accommodate the reality of a situation. I think were getting there with zoning, because the accumulating anomalies are becoming too severe to ignore. Scientific revolutions reshaped how we understand the world. A zoning revolution has the potential to transform our small towns, big cities, and sprawling suburbs in positive ways we have yet to fully imagine. We have 100 years of evidence that zoning has brought more harm than good. {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"","headline":"Urbanism Speakeasy","description":"Join Andy Boenau as he explores ideas that the infrastructure status quo would rather keep quiet. To learn more, visit urbanismspeakeasy.com.","substackDomain":"https:\/\/www.urbanismspeakeasy.com\/","colorTheme":"blue","redirectUrl":""}}
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The flap of a butterflys wings in South America can famously lead to a tornado in the Caribbean. The so-called butterfly effector sensitive dependence on initial conditions, as it is more technically knownis of profound relevance for organizations seeking to deploy AI solutions. As systems become more and more interconnected by AI capabilities that sit across and reach into an increasing number of critical functions, the risk of cascade failureslocalized glitches that ripple outward into organization-wide disruptionsgrows substantially. It is natural to focus AI risk management efforts on individual systems where distinct risks are easy to identify. A senior executive might ask how much the company stands to lose if the predictive model makes inaccurate predictions. How exposed could we be if the chatbot gives out information it shouldnt? What will happen if the new automated system runs into an edge case it cant handle? These are all important questions. But focusing on these kinds of issues exclusively can provide a false sense of safety. The most dangerous AI failures are not the ones that remain confined to one particular area. They are the ones that spread. How Cascade Failures Work While many AI systems currently operate as isolated nodes, it is only when these become joined up across organizations that artificial intelligence will fully deliver on its promise. Networks of AI agents that communicate across departments; automated ordering systems that link customer service chatbots to logistics hubs, or even to the factory floor; executive decision-support models that draw information from every corner of the organizationthese are the kinds of AI implementations that will deliver transformative value. But they are also the kinds of systems that create the biggest risks. {"blockType":"mv-promo-block","data":{"imageDesktopUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/10\/creator-faisalhoque.png","imageMobileUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/10\/faisal-hoque.png","eyebrow":"","headline":"Ready to thrive at the intersection of business, technology, and humanity? ","dek":"Faisal Hoques books, podcast, and his companies give leaders the frameworks and platforms to align purpose, people, process, and techturning disruption into meaningful, lasting progress.","subhed":"","description":"","ctaText":"Learn More","ctaUrl":"https:\/\/faisalhoque.com","theme":{"bg":"#02263c","text":"#ffffff","eyebrow":"#9aa2aa","subhed":"#ffffff","buttonBg":"#ffffff","buttonHoverBg":"#3b3f46","buttonText":"#000000"},"imageDesktopId":91420512,"imageMobileId":91420514,"shareable":false,"slug":""}} Consider how quickly problems can multiply: Corrupted data at a single collection point can poison the outputs of every analytical tool downstream. A security flaw in one model becomes a doorway into every system it touches. And when several AI applications compete for the same computing resources, a spike in demand can choke performance across the boardoften at the worst possible moment. When AI is siloed, failures are contained. When AI is interconnected, failures can propagate in ways that are difficult to predict and even harder to stop. The 2010 Flash Crash in the U.S. stock markets showed how algorithms can interact in unexpected ways, causing problems on a scale that can be hard to imagine. On the morning of May 6th, more than a trillion dollars was wiped off the value of the Dow Jones Industrial Average in a matter of minutes as automated systems triggered a spiral of sell-offs. Despite several years of investigation, the exact cause of the crash is still unknown. What the Flash Crash revealed is that when autonomous systems interact, their combined behavior can diverge dramatically from what any single system was programmed to do. None of the algorithms were designed to crash the market and none of them would have done so if they were operating independently. But the interactions between themeach responding to signals created by othersproduced an unexpected result at the systemic level that was divorced from the goals of any one part of that system. This is the nature of cascade risk. The danger lies not in any individual AI system failing, but in the unpredictable ways that interconnected systems can amplify and spread failures across organizational boundaries. The Hidden Connections Several characteristics make AI systems particularly susceptible to cascading failures. Shared data dependencies create hidden connections between seemingly independent systems. Two AI applications might appear to be completely separate, but if they rely on the same underlying data sources, a corruption or error in that data may affect both simultaneously. And a simultaneous failure may have consequences that are more severe than the sum of the individual failures. These kinds of dependencies and their possible outcomes often go unmapped until a failure forces the organization to take notice. Shared infrastructure creates similar vulnerabilities. Multiple AI systems running on common cloud resources or the same on-site computational infrastructure can all be affected by a single point of failure. During high-demand periods, competition between systems for resources can degrade performance across the board in ways that are difficult to predict or diagnose. Feedback loops between AI systems can amplify small errors into large disruptions. When one systems output feeds into another systems input, and the second systems output then influences the first system, the potential for runaway effects increases. What begins as a minor anomaly can be magnified through successive iterations until it produces significant failures. Integration with critical operations also raises the stakes dramatically. When AI becomes embedded in systems that organizations depend onsupply chains, financial operations, customer service, manufacturingcascade failures dont just create technical problems. They disrupt the core functions that keep the business running. The Organizational Blind Spot Perhaps the greatest challenge in managing cascade risk is organizational rather than technical. The systems that interact to create cascade failures often span different departments, different teams, and different areas of expertise. No single person or group has visibility into all the connections and dependencies. This means that cascade risk management requires cross-functional coordination that cuts against traditional organizational structures. It requires mapping dependencies that cross departmental boundaries. It requires testing failure scenarios that involve multiple systems simultaneously. And it requires governance structures that can make decisions about acceptable risk levels across the organization as a whole, not just within individual units. Organizations that treat AI implementation as a series of independent projectseach managed by its own team, each evaluated on its own meritswill inevitably create the conditions for cascading failures. The connections between systems will emerge organically, without deliberate design or oversight. And when failures occur, they will propagate through pathways that no one fully understood. The alternative is to treat the entire AI ecosystem as an interconnected whole from the beginning. This means thinking about how systems will interact before they are built. It means maintining visibility into dependencies as systems evolve. And it means accepting that the reliability of any individual system is less important than the resilience of the system of systems. Four Ways to Protect Your Organization from AI Cascade Failures 1. Map your AI dependencies before they map themselves. Most organizations discover their system interdependencies only after a failure reveals them. Dont wait. Conduct a systematic audit of how your AI systems connectwhat data they share, what infrastructure they rely on, what outputs feed into other systems inputs. Create a visual map of these dependencies and update it as your AI ecosystem evolves. The goal isnt to eliminate connections (interconnection is often where value comes from) but to understand them well enough to anticipate how failures might propagate. 2. Design circuit breakers into your architecture. Financial markets use automatic trading halts to prevent cascading crashes. Your AI systems need equivalent mechanisms. Build monitoring systems that can detect unusual patternssudden spikes in error rates, unexpected resource consumption, anomalous outputsand automatically pause operations before small problems become large ones. These circuit breakers buy time for human operators to assess situations and intervene. The cost of brief pauses is far less than the cost of cascading failures. 3. Test failure scenarios across system boundaries. Traditional testing evaluates whether individual systems work correctly. Cascade risk requires testing how systems fail together. Run exercises that simulate failures in one system and trace the effects through connected systems. What happens to your customer service AI when your data pipeline delivers corrupted information? How does your inventory system respond when your demand forecasting model produces anomalous predictions? These cross-boundary tests reveal vulnerabilities that single-system testing will never find. 4. Establish cross-functional AI governance. Cascade risks emerge from the gaps between organizational silos. Managing them requires governance structures that span those silosa cross-functional team with visibility into AI implementations across departments and the authority to make decisions about system interactions, acceptable risk levels, and required safeguards. This team should own the dependency map, oversee cross-boundary testing, and ensure that new AI implementations are evaluated not just for their individual merits but for how they affect the broader ecosystem. The butterflys wings are already flapping. The organizations that thrive will be those that see the tornado comingnot by monitoring any single system, but by understanding how all their systems connect. {"blockType":"mv-promo-block","data":{"imageDesktopUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/10\/creator-faisalhoque.png","imageMobileUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/10\/faisal-hoque.png","eyebrow":"","headline":"Ready to thrive at the intersection of business, technology, and humanity? ","dek":"Faisal Hoques books, podcast, and his companies give leaders the frameworks and platforms to align purpose, people, process, and techturning disruption into meaningful, lasting progress.","subhed":"","description":"","ctaText":"Learn More","ctaUrl":"https:\/\/faisalhoque.com","theme":{"bg":"#02263c","text":"#ffffff","eyebrow":"#9aa2aa","subhed":"#ffffff","buttonBg":"#ffffff","buttonHoverBg":"#3b3f46","buttonText":"#000000"},"imageDesktopId":91420512,"imageMobileId":91420514,"shareable":false,"slug":""}}
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Inbox pinging. Deadlines stacking. Morale slipping. One choice could change everything. These 11 books unpack the decisionsand strategiesthat distinguish great leaders. Learn something new every day with Book Bites, 15-minute audio summaries of the latest and greatest nonfiction. Get started by downloading the Next Big Idea app today! Inspire: The Universal Path for Leading Yourself and Others By Adam Galinsky Every leader leaves their mark on the hearts and minds of a workforce. This can go one of two ways: leaders can leave behind a legacy of inspiration, or infuriation. Based on thousands of perspectives collected from around the globe, Adam created a systemic formula for choosing and earning the lasting impact you want to have on others. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Adam Galinsky, in the Next Big Idea app or view on Amazon. Why Are We Here?: Creating a Work Culture Everyone Wants By Jennifer Moss Leaders dont need to take a ton of time overhauling company culture to create workplaces where employees want to spend their time. Simple shifts and incremental changes can foster community, fuel purpose, boost productivity, and deliver meaning to every team member. Jobs that employees actually like are the ultimate capitalist business strategy. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Jennifer Moss, in the Next Big Idea app or view on Amazon. Lead Well: 5 Mindsets to Engage, Retain, and Inspire Your Team By Paula Davis To increase well-being, motivation, engagement, resilience, or the many words that describe thriving teams, we must understand that leadership behaviors drive employee experience. We need to advance the conversation beyond individual remedies for burnout and address root causes of stress and disengagement. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Paula Davis, in the Next Big Idea app or view on Amazon. No One Is Self-Made: Build Your Village to Flourish in Business and Life By Lakeysha Hallmon A legacy of wealth, health, and purpose only comes from building villages that flourish, and thats why nourishing community is critical for anyone ambitious. Our greatest work is achieved when it is pursued in support of collective power. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Lakeysha Hallmon, in the Next Big Idea app or view on Amazon. Youre the Boss: Become the Manager You Want to Be (and Others Need) By Sabina Nawaz No leader wants to become a clueless jerk after obtaining a new position of power. But the pressures that come with becoming a boss can make it difficult to maintain their humanity, humility, and grip on reality. With the right tools, everyone from managers to executives, can turn pressure into clarity, power into connection, and act with thoughtfulness and courage at work. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Sabina Nawaz, in the Next Big Idea app or view on Amazon. Masters of Uncertainty: The Navy SEAL Way to Turn Stress into Success for You and Your Team By Rich Diviney High performance under pressure isnt limited to Navy SEALs. Its not about being fearless or superhuman. Its about tapping into human capabilities that we all possesscapabilities that can be trained, honed, and applied in any environment. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Rich Diviney, in the Next Big Idea app or view on Amazon. Meaningful Work: How to Ignite Passion and Performance in Every Employee By Wes Adams and Tamara Myles The best burnout prevention, retention remedy, and workplace satisfaction guarantee comes down to meaning. Without feeling directly connected to the meaning behind a job, and without feeling seen for their contributions, people disengage and stagnate. Growth and innovation rely on leaders ability to build teams that know and feel their worth, individually and as a unit. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by coauthors Wes Adams and Tamara Myles, in the Next Big Idea app or view on Amazon. The Psychology of Leadership: Timeless Principles to Improve Your Management of Individuals and Teams . . . and Yourself! By Sebastien Page Peak performance is a dangerous, albeit rewarding, adventure. There are plenty of hurdles on the path to sustainable success that can damage well-being or hinder positive outcomes. The Psychology of Leadership identifies timeless pillars of strong, ethical, lasting leadership. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Sebastien Page, in the Next Big Idea app or view on Amazon. The Devil Emails at Midnight: What Good Leaders Can Learn From Bad Bosses By Mita Mallick The silver lining that comes from working for several bad bosses? You can learn what not to do as a leader. From every bad boss comes a valuable lesson about how to manage teams and contribute to a companys success. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Mita Mallick, in the Next Big Idea app or view on Amazon. Headamentals: How Leaders Can Crack Negative Self-Talk By Suzy Burke, Ryan Berman, and Rhett Power Leaders arent failing because they dont have a strategy or skill. They are stuck because of their internal battlestheir self-talknot because of the challenges happening with customers or in the market. Headamentals is about directing that inner voice so that it becomes a competitive advantage and helps you build great teams. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by co-authors Suzy Burke, Ryan Berman, and Rhett Power, in the Next Big Idea app or view on Amazon. Moral Ambition: Stop Wasting Your Talent and Start Making a Difference By Rutger Bregman What if everything weve been told about having a successful career is wrong? Rutger Bregman thinks most of us are wasting our working lives and argues we should stop trying to get rich and start trying to solve the worlds problems instead. Listen to our Next Big Idea podcast episode interviewing author Rutger Bregman, or view on Amazon. The Key Ideas in 15 Minutes If you are going to get anywhere in life, you have to read a lot of books, Roald Dahl once famously said. The only trouble is, reading even one book from cover to cover takes hoursand you may not have many hours to spare. But imagine for a moment: What if you could read a groundbreaking new book every day? Or even better, what if you could invite a world-renowned thinker into your earbuds, where they personally describe the 5 key takeaways from their work in just 15 minutes? With the Next Big Idea app, weve turned this fantasy into a reality. We partnered with hundreds of acclaimed authors to create Book Bites, short audio summaries of the latest nonfiction that are prepared and read aloud by the authors themselves. Discover cutting-edge leadership skills, productivity hacks, the science of happiness and well-being, and much moreall in the time it takes to drive to work or walk the dog. I love this app! The Book Bites are brilliant, perfect to have in airports, waiting rooms, anywhere I need to not doomscroll You guys are the best! Missy G. Go Deeper with a Next Big Idea Club Membership The Next Big Idea app is free for anyone to tryand if you love it, we invite you to become an official member of the Next Big Idea Club. Membership grants you unlimited access to Book Bites and unlocks early-release, ad-free episodes of our LinkedIn-partnered podcast. You also gain entry to our private online discussion group, where you can talk big ideas with fellow club members and join exclusive live Q&A sessions with featured authors. For a more focused learning experience, we recommend a Hardcover or eBook Membership. Every few months, legendary authors and club curators Malcolm Gladwell, Susan Cain, Adam Grant, and Daniel Pink select two new nonfiction books as the must-reads of the season. We then send hardcover copies straight to your doorstep, or eBook versions to your favorite digital device. We also collaborate with the authors of selected books to produce original reading guides and premium e-courses, 50-minute master classes that take you step by step through their most life-changing ideas. And yes, its all available through the Next Big Idea App. My biggest Thank You is for the quality of book selections so far. I look on my shelf and see these great titles, and I find myself taking down one or two each month to reread an underlined passage. Full marks to all involved! Tim K. Learn Faster, from the Worlds Leading Thinkers Whether you prefer to read, listen, or watch, the Next Big Idea is here to help you work smarter and live better. Wake up with an always-fresh Idea of the Day, the perfect shot of inspiration to go with your morning coffee. Then dive into one of our Challenges, hand-picked collections of Book Bites that form crash courses in subjects like communication, motivation, and career acceleration. Later, watch the playback of an interview with U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, Stanford psychologist Jennifer Eberhardt, or philosopher John Kaag. And be sure to check the Events tab in the app, so that you can join an upcoming live Q&A and personally chat with the next featured thought leader. If youre hoping to grow as a person or as a professional, we hope youll join us and tens of thousands of others who enjoy the Next Big Idea. Get started by downloading the app today! Enjoy our full library of Book Bitesread by the authors!in the Next Big Idea app. This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.
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