I just ran across this, Emma;;; I think that she/he means
that the positive feedback associated with productivity
is inherent and functional, these days, though it is not
understood within the private sector nor the government
enough to inspire harmonious actions like incentives
for improved quality, productivity or customer appeal.
I justified millions of dollars' worth of productivity improvements
in a previous job and received no more money for them,
just a general "good boy" comment in an otherwise
good evaluation. . this nation began with the private-property
incentive from Bradford and company ... and has been
retreating from it ever since. . we're stupid! -- j
.

Pointer?

Starkermann and Nash tell it all w.r.t. feedback.
Project X was not the only AS instance, by far.
The interpretation takes a willingness to throw off the blinkers

I mentioned Project X in the other thread yesterday. That was part of the inspiration for my thread in the first place.

I shall read into de Mesquita, thanks.

Feedback issues are an AS embedded theme, z.B., the Xylophone, remember?

The invisible hand that suppresses productivity is Administratium. The only place in any organization where Administratium can be excluded is the workface and first tier supervisor/foreman. This is invisible to the organization. Only here can no BS productivity be found, and here it is the easiest to kill. Do you hear me, John?

The Amity vs. Enmity series by Starkermann is worth looking at, particularly the third .pdf file, Sections 5 and 6 on interactions between lawyers and on interactions between clergymen and their flocks of believers. I followed enough of the mathematics to agree with the general conclusions about the social interactions.

In some ways this reminds me of the work of Bruce Buena de Mesquita.
http://www.predictioneersgame.com/

Looters currently use the mathematically negative feedback mechanism to reward moochers with money from producers. The moochers then give this money back in the form of campaign donations. The only government official who has even come close to breaking this vicious, self-reinforcing (although negative in the mathematical sense) feedback mechanism in the last 30 years is Scott Walker of Wisconsin. I don't trust politicians. While mathematically you are correct, but I don't think you or any collection of people are capable of causing a sufficiently large disturbance in the political equation to make the Lyapunov exponent positive.

Starkermann sure likes transfer functions. I haven't seen that many transfer functions since I took process control, and that includes a thesis I just read from one of my former research students on swarm theory.

Your statement about negative feedback mechanisms is correct.

Could you please explain this to me?
"The productivity gatekeepers today are real but invisible to their organizations and governments."

Welcome to the Gulch, ArtIficiarius. Given that your post appears to be directly started as a result of my post, I am curious to hear your explanation as to why you didn't just comment on my post.