One Part Planning, Two Parts Adapting

One of my favorite insights is embedded in the heart of economics.  Adam Smith’s invisible hand, Bernard de Mandeville’s grumbling hive, Bastiat’s “Paris gets fed”, Leonard Read’s “I, Pencil”, and F.A. Hayek’s spontaneous order all describe the phenomenon.  Order isn’t always planned, and planning doesn’t always generate order.

How can we resist our impulse to control, and instead harness the power of emergent patterns?