ALL FLUX

Change comes in various wavelengths.

There are changes in the game, changes in the rules of the game, and changes in how the rules are changed.

The first level–changes in the game–produces the kind of changes now visible: new winners and losers. New businesses. New heroes. We see the rise of Wal-Marts, and of Nucor steelmaking.

The second level–changes in the rules of the game–produces new kinds of business, new sectors of the economy, new kinds of games. From this type of change comes the Microsofts and Amazon.coms.

The third level of change, which we are now entering, whips up changes in how change happens. Change changes itself. While the new economy provokes change in the first two levels–all those new business and business sectors–its deepest consequence is the way it alters change. Change accelerates itself. It morphs into creative destruction. It induces flux. It disperses into a field effect, so you can’t pinpoint causes. It overturns the old ways of change.