> Ahrens uses the excellent analogy of how the invention of shipping containers revolutionized international trade to demonstrate the role of note-taking in modern writing ^870c07 > Container shipping is a simple idea: ship products in standardized containers instead of loading them onto ships haphazardly as had always been done. But it took multiple failed attempts before it was successful, because it wasn’t actually about the container, which after all is just a box. ^b45c83 >The potential of the shipping container was only unleashed when every other part of the shipping supply chain was changed to accommodate it. From manufacturing to packaging to final delivery, the design of ships, cranes, trucks, and harbors all had to align around moving containers as quickly and efficiently as possible. Once they did, international shipping exploded, setting the stage for Asia to become an economic power among many other historic changes. – [How To Take Smart Notes: 10 Principles to Revolutionize Your Note-Taking and Writing - Forte Labs](https://fortelabs.co/blog/how-to-take-smart-notes/) This comes from a book called *[[How To Take Smart Notes (2017)|How to take Smart Notes]]* by Sönke Ahrens. A very clear example of [[Systems Thinking]] in action. The design of the shipping container was resisted as often smaller amounts wasted a lot of space being shipped in such a standardized size. The compounding effect when the supply chain integrated around the standardized size wiped away this resistance. The story of the shipping container also highlights how some elements of the container *as a system* happened organically, not as centrally or corporately planned interventions. But by something akin to accidental success of a mutation in [[Evolutionary Biology]]. As [[COVID 19]] shows, if the system, such as the shipping container supply chain is disrupted (by labour etc) the system is shown to be fragile with very little redundancy.