Idioticon - Home
An idioticon (or idiotikon in German) is a glossary - one covering a particular field or area of thinking.
To explore the Idioticon, go to the alphabetical index or follow any of the subject headings in the menu to the left.
You can also use the Triarchy WebBrain (graphic view) or the Triarchy Pearltree (dynamic, graphic view). Both cover all Triarchy online material.
About the Idioticon:
The Triarchy idioticon covers some of the terms that we encounter and love or are intrigued by. Some are familiar to Systems and Complexity Thinkers, many have appeared in Triarchy Press books. Others come from nowhere and offer some lateral connection to things our authors write about. All have useful insights for anyone exploring Systems Thinking, the working of organisations, change or simply trying to understand and make sense of the way that people are.
Each reminds us to look out to the wider systems of which we form a part – to see the bigger picture.
Sources are shown for each idea and, if we have published a book in the area, it will be referenced. But this isn't meant to be a bookselling operation so much as an idea-gathering one.
The idioticon is new(ish), so it’s short(ish). But all good things have to start somewhere. What did Denis Diderot call his Encyclopédie when he’d only written one entry?
[Actually, let’s hope the idioticon fares better than the Encyclopédie at the outset:
The Encyclopédie was originally conceived as a French translation of Ephraim Chambers’s Cyclopaedia. In 1743, the translation was entrusted by the French publisher André Le Breton to John Mills, an Englishman living in Paris. In May 1745, Le Breton announced the work as available for sale, but to his dismay, Mills had not done any of the work he had been commissioned to do; in fact, he could barely read and write French and did not own a copy of Cyclopaedia. Furious, Le Breton beat Mills with a cane. Mills sued for assault, but Le Breton was acquitted in court as being justified.]
[Memo to team: add caning clause to author contract?]
To explore the Idioticon, go to the alphabetical index or follow any of the subject headings in the menu to the left.
You can also use the Triarchy WebBrain (graphic view) or the Triarchy Pearltree (dynamic, graphic view). Both cover all Triarchy online material.
About the Idioticon:
The Triarchy idioticon covers some of the terms that we encounter and love or are intrigued by. Some are familiar to Systems and Complexity Thinkers, many have appeared in Triarchy Press books. Others come from nowhere and offer some lateral connection to things our authors write about. All have useful insights for anyone exploring Systems Thinking, the working of organisations, change or simply trying to understand and make sense of the way that people are.
Each reminds us to look out to the wider systems of which we form a part – to see the bigger picture.
Sources are shown for each idea and, if we have published a book in the area, it will be referenced. But this isn't meant to be a bookselling operation so much as an idea-gathering one.
The idioticon is new(ish), so it’s short(ish). But all good things have to start somewhere. What did Denis Diderot call his Encyclopédie when he’d only written one entry?
[Actually, let’s hope the idioticon fares better than the Encyclopédie at the outset:
The Encyclopédie was originally conceived as a French translation of Ephraim Chambers’s Cyclopaedia. In 1743, the translation was entrusted by the French publisher André Le Breton to John Mills, an Englishman living in Paris. In May 1745, Le Breton announced the work as available for sale, but to his dismay, Mills had not done any of the work he had been commissioned to do; in fact, he could barely read and write French and did not own a copy of Cyclopaedia. Furious, Le Breton beat Mills with a cane. Mills sued for assault, but Le Breton was acquitted in court as being justified.]
[Memo to team: add caning clause to author contract?]
