S 4 E 10 The little Person Inside (Synecdoche)

The space shuttle and the Buran

Spiro Agnew and the space shuttle

The full text of "The Space Shuttle decision"

The Cuban Missile Crisis, the essence of decision and the way we decide (no rational actors)

The organizational process model (from Wikipedia)

• When faced with a crisis, government leaders don't look at it as a whole, but break it down and assign it according to pre-established organizational lines.
• Because of time and resource limitations, rather than evaluating all possible courses of action to see which one is most likely to work, leaders settle on the first proposal that adequately addresses the issue, which Simon termed "satisficing."
• Leaders gravitate towards solutions that limit short-term uncertainty (emphasis on "short-term").
• Organizations follow set "repertoires" and procedures when taking actions.
• Because of the large resources and time required to fully plan and mobilize actions within a large organization (or government), leaders are effectively limited to pre-existing plans.

Nobel Prize in Economics

Marvin Minsky and the Society of Mind