Spontaneous order is a key mental model in Market-Based Management and is loosely defined as the miraculous emergence of order from the seemingly chaotic interaction of billions of human beings. Adam Ferguson famously described it as "the result of human action, but not the execution of any human design." In MBM, spontaneous order represents our mental model of how the world works. That is, the world is made up of billions of self-interested individuals who provide for one another by pursuing their own self interests. If an individual or business fails to provide for others, then it will fail in providing for itself. I was acutely reminded of spontaneous order while viewing this short clip on the BBC. It depicts GPS tracking of ships, planes, and taxis (among other things) traveling in and around the British Isles within a 24 hour period. Not only is the clip amazing, but it serves a reminder that chaos is often not so chaotic.
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