The Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter uses the term Creative Destruction to describe the process of transformation that accompanies radical innovation. One of the ways an economy moves forward is by destroying the old in order to create new opportunities.
I first heard of the late Per Bak and his sandpile theories when I some time back read an article by Koubatis and Schönberger (1995) on Risk management of complex critical systems. Per Bak’s “sandpile” model is as relevant to business and society as Adam Smith’s legendary “invisible hand”.
