Reviewing the 6 meltdowns that had occurred in the 54 trials that had been conducted to date, that source estimated the risk to be one in a hundred million.

The reader is invited to ask him-or herself, Is it possible that I am seeing the world from inside a System? Am I, unbeknownst to myself, a Systems-person? The answer is always, Yes. The relevant question is, simply, Which System?

The reader who is familiar with the First Edition will note, in the Second Edition, a very slight and subtle shift of focus, a change of emphasis, in the direction of Pragmatism. Some of the later Chapters, if read uncritically, could even lead to a sort of optimism regarding Man’s ultimate ability to take charge of Systems – those created by his own hand as well as those originated by Mother Nature. The reader is hereby warned that any such optimism is the reader’s own responsibility.

A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that works. The inverse proposition also appears to be true: A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be made to work.

A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over with a working simple system.

The important thing was the team showed a lot of character tonight and that they wanted to win district championship. Flower Mound pushed us all night and all the credit goes to them. But we had a plan to win the game tonight and we did.

I just put my head down and played hard. Every pitch, every at-bat, I concentrated on playing baseball.

I had a feeling he was going to start with a slider, try to get a strike away. It dove away, and I took a decent pass at it. And then, yeah, from there, I could have tightened it down a little bit more. He was looking for me to chase, which I did.

I'm just trying to focus on every at-bat, every pitch, and not give anything away, but knowing that if I do, on the next pitch I've got to focus even that much more.

I knew there was a chance, but I don't count my chickens until they hatch. Hopefully I get a chance to help the team.