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4.18 AVERAGE
4.18 AVERAGE
great systems thinking primer
I really enjoyed the book. It's full of good examples and explanations of what constitutes a system and how to analyze it.
I really enjoyed the book. It's full of good examples and explanations of what constitutes a system and how to analyze it.
adventurous
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
This was great. It's a recommended book for August Bradley's Pillars, Pipelines and Vaults course for Notion. I'm part of the first cohort of that course and it's all about mindset and systems thinking, two concepts that I'm hoping I can use to get my health and wealth in better positions.
It's a little scientific, but not so scientific that I got lost. I did try listening to the audiobook first and found that that didn't really work for me, so I got the Kindle Edition and that made a lot more sense. I have made a lot of highlights and they have been sucked into my knowledge vault in Notion, so I may well come back to this and write a longer review with some quotes and thoughts that they triggered, or maybe even a YouTube video as that's another area where I see some growth for me. That's exactly the sort of area where I see systems helping me in a big way.
It's a little scientific, but not so scientific that I got lost. I did try listening to the audiobook first and found that that didn't really work for me, so I got the Kindle Edition and that made a lot more sense. I have made a lot of highlights and they have been sucked into my knowledge vault in Notion, so I may well come back to this and write a longer review with some quotes and thoughts that they triggered, or maybe even a YouTube video as that's another area where I see some growth for me. That's exactly the sort of area where I see systems helping me in a big way.
It's not a well written book and by the time you reach that book you're likely familiar with most concepts from it.
But the idea of thinking in systems seems very powerful and it helps with that. It's one of those things that you may read and think "well, obviously", yet still pointing it out and stating it explicitly may be helpful.
But the idea of thinking in systems seems very powerful and it helps with that. It's one of those things that you may read and think "well, obviously", yet still pointing it out and stating it explicitly may be helpful.
challenging
informative
medium-paced
Donella Meadows's expertise and experience is a strength of this book. There are a number of inspiring examples. However, as I am already familiar with system dynamics, the book was really straightforward and didn't much consider other modeling approaches. I really liked it and would recommend it, but it wasn't as enlightening as I had expected.
I found this book because it was briefly mentioned in Kate Raworth's Doughnut Economics. There was a link to a fantastic lecture by Donella Meadows and that brought me to this book. And voilà.
The central idea, as suggested in the title, is that the world is full of complex systems and it's far more important to be able to figure out how to tweak the system rather than playing around with knobs and buttons. For eg. the recession part of the business cycle will not go away just by toying around with interest rates. It's more important to understand the behaviour of the economic cycle to figure out why recession comes and goes in waves and how to see it coming from prior experience. As a 'textbook', this is very accessible. I wish more academic texts were written in such a language where you don't need any prior experience with technology, science, economics, or sociology to be able to comprehend the point being made.
That aside, I do wish it gave at least 2-3 examples of systems where applied thinking from this book brought about a change because this book just introduces the idea and the ways to modify a system, without actually showing how it could be done, which, in my mind, diminishes the book as a possible policy formation tool. I have to content myself by considering this as more of a philosophical tool to view the world around.
The central idea, as suggested in the title, is that the world is full of complex systems and it's far more important to be able to figure out how to tweak the system rather than playing around with knobs and buttons. For eg. the recession part of the business cycle will not go away just by toying around with interest rates. It's more important to understand the behaviour of the economic cycle to figure out why recession comes and goes in waves and how to see it coming from prior experience. As a 'textbook', this is very accessible. I wish more academic texts were written in such a language where you don't need any prior experience with technology, science, economics, or sociology to be able to comprehend the point being made.
That aside, I do wish it gave at least 2-3 examples of systems where applied thinking from this book brought about a change because this book just introduces the idea and the ways to modify a system, without actually showing how it could be done, which, in my mind, diminishes the book as a possible policy formation tool. I have to content myself by considering this as more of a philosophical tool to view the world around.
I didn't love listening to this as an audiobook because so much of it required me to make pictures in my brain, which I'm not so good at thru audio input. But i learned a lot regardless; it really did feel like a good primer.
Work reading.
"To ask whether elements, interconnections, or purposes are most important in a system is to ask an unsystematic question. All are essential." (17)
"The trick, as with all the behavioral possibilities of complex systems, is to recognize what structures contain which latent behaviors, and what conditions release those behaviors--and, where possible, to arrange the structures and conditions to reduce the probability of descriptive behaviors and to encourage the possibility of beneficial ones." (72)
"The structure of a system is its interlocking stocks, flows, and feedback loops. The diagrams with boxes and arrows...are pictures of system structure. Structure determines what behaviors are latent in the system. A goal-seeking balancing feedback loop approaches or holds a dynamic equilibrium. A reinforcing feedback loop generates exponential growth. The two of them linked together are capable of growth, decay, or equilibrium. If they also contain delays, they pay produce oscillations. If they work in periodic, rapid bursts, they may produce even more surprising behaviors. Systems thinking goes back and forth constantly between structure (diagrams of stocks, flows, and feedback) and behavior (time graphs). Systems thinkers strive to understand the connections between the...event and the resulting oscillations (behavior) and the mechanical characteristics of the...structure." (89)
"Flows go up and down, on and off, in all sorts of combinations, in response to stocks, not to other flows." (90)
"The bounded rationality of each actor in a system--determined by the information, incentives, disincentives, goals, stresses, and constraints impinging on that actor--may or may not lead to decisions that further the welfare of the system as a whole. If they do not, putting new actors into the same system will not improve the system's performance. What makes a difference is redesigning the system to improve the information, incentives, disincentives, goals, stresses, and constraints that have an effect on specific actors." (110)
"Aim to enhance total systems properties, such as growth, stability, diversity, resilience, and sustainability--whether they are easily measured or not." (178)
"To ask whether elements, interconnections, or purposes are most important in a system is to ask an unsystematic question. All are essential." (17)
"The trick, as with all the behavioral possibilities of complex systems, is to recognize what structures contain which latent behaviors, and what conditions release those behaviors--and, where possible, to arrange the structures and conditions to reduce the probability of descriptive behaviors and to encourage the possibility of beneficial ones." (72)
"The structure of a system is its interlocking stocks, flows, and feedback loops. The diagrams with boxes and arrows...are pictures of system structure. Structure determines what behaviors are latent in the system. A goal-seeking balancing feedback loop approaches or holds a dynamic equilibrium. A reinforcing feedback loop generates exponential growth. The two of them linked together are capable of growth, decay, or equilibrium. If they also contain delays, they pay produce oscillations. If they work in periodic, rapid bursts, they may produce even more surprising behaviors. Systems thinking goes back and forth constantly between structure (diagrams of stocks, flows, and feedback) and behavior (time graphs). Systems thinkers strive to understand the connections between the...event and the resulting oscillations (behavior) and the mechanical characteristics of the...structure." (89)
"Flows go up and down, on and off, in all sorts of combinations, in response to stocks, not to other flows." (90)
"The bounded rationality of each actor in a system--determined by the information, incentives, disincentives, goals, stresses, and constraints impinging on that actor--may or may not lead to decisions that further the welfare of the system as a whole. If they do not, putting new actors into the same system will not improve the system's performance. What makes a difference is redesigning the system to improve the information, incentives, disincentives, goals, stresses, and constraints that have an effect on specific actors." (110)
"Aim to enhance total systems properties, such as growth, stability, diversity, resilience, and sustainability--whether they are easily measured or not." (178)