5 ms·

I find the visibly distinct split in recommendations to be fascinating. Of the books I've read, Sterman's Business Dynamics: Systems Thinking and Modeling for

I find the visibly distinct split in recommendations to be fascinating. Of the books I've read, Sterman's Business Dynamics: Systems Thinking and Modeling for a Complex World is the best all-round introduction to both the theory and practice of systems thinking. There are a lot of books and as a family of related fields, systems have historically attracted creative and iconoclastic thinkers. That can be fun, but also frustrating. I think Sterman strikes the right balance. It can be surprisingly difficult to lay your hands on a copy; Amazon tends to list 2nd-hand copies at high prices ($200+). I waited several years before seeing one on sale for $90.

EliRivers 9y ago
As an aside, I see that while amazon.com currently lists them quite highly priced right now, alibris.com can find some much cheaper versions. Second hand prices on amazon are sometimes surprisingly high, and sometimes, their new prices too - I routinely check bookdepository, wordery, booksplea.se, agreatread, thriftbooks, abebooks and alibris - each of them bests the others and Amazon frequently enough to keep checking them all. My list of sites to check is UK focused, but I expect there are US equivalents. Looks like alibris will do a copy of the book in question for a bit under 20 USD as I type, with some searching around.
- Pietertje 9y ago
  Piranhas.co does the same, though with less sites. It also includes shipping costs.
Pamar 9y ago
Abebooks lists several copies in the 20-25 USD price range though. Some even with CD-Rom... they all seem to be “International Edition” whatever this means.
- EliRivers 9y ago
  "International Edition" generally means printed significantly more cheaply, and not intended for sale within "rich countries"; generally countries where they can realistically push the expensive version. International Editions often say on them "Not for sale in the US" or some such, depending on the publisher; they sell in poorer countries at a lower price. The quality is often, in my experience, significantly lower; the paper is thinner, the ink cheaper, sometimes the alignment of the printing is a little off. Colour plates are missing or decoloured, hardbacks become softbacks, and so on. But, the words are the same, and sometimes the International Edition is actually pretty reasonable quality. I've got some that are clearly pretty shoddy, and some that you wouldn't actually know were Internationals. I suspect that sometimes publishers don't reprint it cheaply; they just stamp some of them "International Edition, not for sale in countries <x y z>" on it and ship them abroad to sell, much as some semiconductor manufacturers' cheaper chips actually come off the same line as the expensive ones, and then get tweaked (or even just labelled down). A sale is a sale.
PeterisP 9y ago
I can only support the recommendation. It not only has good insights on systems thinking, it also pays a lot of attention on communicating systems thinking and recommendations based on it to others since, as a rule, to get any meaningful changes done at least half of the work is convincing other people.

EliRivers 9y ago

As an aside, I see that while amazon.com currently lists them quite highly priced right now, alibris.com can find some much cheaper versions. Second hand prices on amazon are sometimes surprisingly high, and sometimes, their new prices too - I routinely check bookdepository, wordery, booksplea.se, agreatread, thriftbooks, abebooks and alibris - each of them bests the others and Amazon frequently enough to keep checking them all. My list of sites to check is UK focused, but I expect there are US equivalents. Looks like alibris will do a copy of the book in question for a bit under 20 USD as I type, with some searching around.

Pietertje 9y ago
Piranhas.co does the same, though with less sites. It also includes shipping costs.

Pamar 9y ago

Abebooks lists several copies in the 20-25 USD price range though. Some even with CD-Rom... they all seem to be “International Edition” whatever this means.

EliRivers 9y ago
"International Edition" generally means printed significantly more cheaply, and not intended for sale within "rich countries"; generally countries where they can realistically push the expensive version. International Editions often say on them "Not for sale in the US" or some such, depending on the publisher; they sell in poorer countries at a lower price. The quality is often, in my experience, significantly lower; the paper is thinner, the ink cheaper, sometimes the alignment of the printing is a little off. Colour plates are missing or decoloured, hardbacks become softbacks, and so on. But, the words are the same, and sometimes the International Edition is actually pretty reasonable quality. I've got some that are clearly pretty shoddy, and some that you wouldn't actually know were Internationals. I suspect that sometimes publishers don't reprint it cheaply; they just stamp some of them "International Edition, not for sale in countries <x y z>" on it and ship them abroad to sell, much as some semiconductor manufacturers' cheaper chips actually come off the same line as the expensive ones, and then get tweaked (or even just labelled down). A sale is a sale.

PeterisP 9y ago

I can only support the recommendation. It not only has good insights on systems thinking, it also pays a lot of attention on communicating systems thinking and recommendations based on it to others since, as a rule, to get any meaningful changes done at least half of the work is convincing other people.