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I talk a lot about complex socio-technical systems.

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And sometimes people ask me, "Well, why – is that different than a wicked problem?"

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We don't use the word "wicked problem", because it's used too much

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and it has too many different meanings.

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And so, that's why we avoid that term.

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And it kind of is the same thing.

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The term "wicked problems" was invented some time ago,

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and it refers to problems of the nature that

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well, sometimes it's even hard to define the problem.

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And it's hard to define the solution.

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And when you work on a wicked problem like world peace,

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how do you even know when you've succeeded?

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Because you may succeed for...

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there's peace for two years, and then it breaks out again.

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So, was that a success or not?

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So, wicked problems are these really difficult issues

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that are difficult to define, that are indeed complex systems,

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that are indeed complex socio-technical systems,

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difficult to define, difficult to know how to approach,

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difficult to even know whether you've been successful.

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And, yeah, the ones I'm looking at are 

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wicked

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complex social-technical problems.

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So, but don't give up hope,

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because we can never solve some of these major problems,

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but, however, we can make things better.

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We can make improvements.

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And that's often all that we can do,

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but if we're continually making improvements and enhancements

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and making people's lives better across all of the world,

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I consider that a success.

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It means we're never finished,

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but I consider that a success, and that's

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what you have to do with wicked problems.