The Red Queen effect only plays out positively if you are running in the right direction. Getting the vector right requires 'thinking'. I remember sitting in a bankrupt aeroengine company [that 40 years on is one of the top global aero-power providers] and being told we could have as many people as we liked to start work on a better engine (for Boeing as it happens). Our boss said "no, I want to sit with my 3 section managers (I was one) and figure out how we do it faster and better." Two weeks later we started to ask for support services to get their act together and collaborate/coordinate and we did our project almost right first time and in 1/3 less time. So to get out of this incredible mess I suggest we need to think for a while and then move, in what we think is, the correct direction and be prepared to change the vector (slow down, move north, speed up on the turn, etc.). It is that OODA effect again.

Thank goodness I misinterpreted Chick-send-me-high as I used the flow experince as being highly skilled and task (goal)oriented; combining the skills-learning with achieving a goal certainly helped my team and I to achieve flow. As it was a personal goal (connected to the overall goal) we also broke the rules, took the flak and achieved impressive outcomes that the rule-based approach could not achieve. We also thought in terms of OODA loops that major Boyd put forward as a way of achieving combat superiority but useful to express what we were doing in the context of ourselves and our collaborators (both meanings apply: working with the enemy [not the expected people we normally worked with] and working together to achieve the outcome [not what the business routinely expected so it felt a bit naughty]). Certainly we felt flow, OODA and passionate rule and game-changing activity meant constant goal shifting with the aim of delivering radical effects. It isn't worth getting out of bed to achieve 5%, 50% makes it all worthwhile!

Superb pieces of film. I am researching the influence of Maurice Egerton on early aviation in Britain and he went to Pau in April 1909, maybe flew with Wilbur (certainly becoming friendly with the family in later years), but on 21st April (just before this film) confirmed an order for Short-built Wright Flyer No 4. If you read his logbook for December 1909 (http://www.eastchurchpc.kentparishes.gov.uk/userfiles/File/Maurice_Egerton_logbook_3.pdf) and watch the film you can imagine how he felt on his first solo flight.

When I was involved in life cycle analysis (as a recipient of the analysis) of packaging the minimisation of environmental impact meant that it was not easy to make a decision on packaging formats. For instance in this case I would factor in on my Design Space (http://snipurl.com/1sa28) any additional effects that come to light when thinking cradle-to-grave, for instance, as described here (http://snipurl.com/1sa24) "After years of cajoling and persuading, the wine industry has finally convinced most of us that maybe screw-top bottles are okay after all - they are a pretty safe bet when it comes to keeping wine untainted. What they didn't tell us is that the 15 billion cork stoppers produced each year are biodegradable and sustainable. The great thing about cork is that the tree bark regenerates after harvesting. Each individual tree conserves lots of carbon dioxide, and cork oak forests provide a habitat for endangered species such as the Barbary deer and Spanish imperial eagle. Without the income from the cork stoppers, these forests (and the farmers) could be in danger." Also missing is any thought about what we do with our £120 corkscrews that are part of the social ritual of drinking wine!