add: pace layers

entries/pace layers.md

@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+---
+title: pace layers
+permalink: pace-layers
+date: 2023-10-10T11:51:58-07:00
+tags: design
+---
+
+Stewart Brand[^1], in his book The Clock of Long Now, described the concept of
+pace layers: that within a society different groups move at different speeds.
+The relationship between layers creates both internal tension and desirable
+systemic effects, allowing for society to innovate and disrupt while
+simultaneously providing consistency and stability.
+
+![pace_layering](../media/76b976f9e5a85ece.jpg)
+
+This is a mental model and framework for understanding society at large, but
+applies equally well for many large dynamic systems of people, software,
+architecture, and nature. Faster layers tend to be at the visible surface and
+change discontinuously, innovating when faced with new input. Slower layers are
+more powerful, integrating and codifying lessons from faster layers while
+providing inertial continuity that constrains them.
+
+![pace_layers-slide2](../media/9cd64fbfb36b5e1f.jpg)
+
+When struggling to weigh fast with slow, balancing allowing change with
+providing continuity, consider how Pace Layers can help you think about the
+system you're working within.
+
+To change is to lose identity; yet to change is to be alive[^2]
+
+[^1]:
+    [Stewart Brand](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stewart_Brand) is an overall
+    fascinating and polarizing person. 1960s San Francisco counter-culture
+    leader, editor of the Whole Earth Catalog, president of the Long Now
+    Foundation, and friend of Douglas Engelbart, Steve Jobs, Buckminster Fuller,
+    and Brian Eno.
+
+[^2]:
+    This and many other great moments from Brand's
+    [lecture](https://longnow.org/ideas/pace-layers-stewart-brand-paul-saffos-conversations-at-the-interval/)
+    at The Long Now's Interval.