The Opposable Mind, by Roger Martin

This was a fine book — but not fantastic for me. Reminds me why I mostly don’t read business books. There are some good things to remember in this book — in particular, that models are always simplifications and there are always better models potentially. Moreover, there are often models which are opposed to each other, but still useful to contemplate both. And that some of the most successful organizations not only don’t oversimplify, but they embrace the messiness of real life without getting overcome by it. That’s one of the lessons that’s relevant for Mozilla — when people ask me to draw an org chart or explain exactly how things work, I always grimace. Not because it’s not doable, but because there’s a lot of complexity and nuance that seems non-determinant and arcane to most folks — but much of that nuance is what really makes things go.