The sequel is called The Murmuration of the Starlings. As with the original, it is a collection of different viewpoints of the same object but with a new underlying metaphor. In a few cases, we have reframed some of the original views but the rest of the content is new. We take as our inspiration a flock of starlings on a warm autumn evening. As the birds group together in the darkening sky, the patterns they make coalesce and fragment unexpectedly. It is jittery, unstable, and hard to predict. Driven by the freedom of the individual, it is still bound into a loose unity of purpose—just like consumer trends in the modern economy.
The complexity of this behavior is created by three simple rules: go in the same direction as the group, don’t bump into anyone, and try to get to the middle.