When I first walked into the computer labs at university they were filled with people playing SimCity, textbooks piled about them, feverishly making notes. They had the air of people trying to learn a lesson, not playing a game.
Contradiction: when bad systems ruin good people
Wherever large groups of people are managed in order to produce a product, serve a customer, or achieve some other strategic goal, management systems govern their interactions.
All these rules seem sensible at the time they are written, but the net impact is small inefficiencies that degrade the whole.
The game of Contradiction shows just how easily even simple interactions, which are poorly aligned, can result in irrational results.
Download the rules of the game here.
