Tight Coupling

I learned a new word, and therefore a new idea, from the book A Demon of Our Own Design by Richard Bookstaber. Tight coupling refers to the series of events that follow each other in rapid succession similar to the production line. The book states that most catastrophes involve complexity and tight coupling.

Of the many examples that the author gives, two of them I use for examples of complexity: the Three Mile Island atomic problem and the Challenger space ship explosion. To launch a missile, there are many events that follow each other in succession. With tight coupling there is no time to think about other problems, such as faulty o-rings.

The recent problems at Toyota are a good example of tight coupling and ignoring other problems.

Bookstaber wrote this book in 2007. The market problem hit us in 2008. He was correct. The problem now is that we still have complexity, like the usage of derivatives, and tight coupling, like the market players that buy and sell in less than a minute. This market tight coupling and complexity could produce another catastrophe.