Poverty defense, and the environment - How policy optics, policy incompleteness, fastthinking.com, equivalency paradox, deliberation trap, mailbox dilemma the urban ecosystem, and the end of problem solving recast difficult policy issues

In addition to being uncertain and complex, the policy world is incomplete; at any point in time, most of the work of policy makers and policy analyst s is unfinished or yet to be done. Policy incompleteness, uncertainty, mid complexity have made fastthinking imperative: just-in-time thinking to matc h our just-in-time schedules in our just-interrupted task environments. The usual remedy, more deliberation, is frequently no longer possible and, eve n if it were, it has its own difficulties. If fastthinking is here to stay and we are in the twilight of conventional problem solving, then policy ana lysts need new ways to deal with permanently incomplete policy issues. Poli cy optics allow us, the practicing policy analysts, to recast familiarly in tractable problems of poverty, defense, and the environment into a more tra ctable light They do not solve policy incompleteness, bur they enable us to start tasks that we have a better chance of finishing.