Quote Originally Posted by squark View Post
The bold is somewhat how I picture VS. But, even better is the definition Ashton gave for synergy "Synergy - The combination of two or more things that creates an effect which is greater than the sum of both separately."

In other words, the conclusions drawn are greater than what you could get from the data alone. It's not step by step, one thing adding to another, but instead a leap from many pieces to a conclusion that cannot be directly derived from adding up the pieces. That's why it seems to come out of nowhere to those of us not in the heads of the VS.
Reminds me of:

“Despite the oceans of ink and years of thought which have been devoted to the elucidation of war, it's secrets still remain shrouded in mystery. Indeed, it is due largely to the very volume of available information that the veil is so thick. War is an art and as such it is not susceptible to explanation by fixed formulae. Yet, from the earliest time there has been an unending effort to subject it's complex and emotional structure to dissection, to enunciate rules for it's waging, to make tangible it's intangibility. One might as well attempt to isolate the soul by the dissection of a cadaver as to seek the essence of war by the analysis of it's records.”

@Sir Knight: Getting to your post.