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I want to like the idea but articles like this one are just intellectual drivel to me. People are systems thinker by nature I believe. If there are negative sid

by cJ0th 8y ago

I want to like the idea but articles like this one are just intellectual drivel to me. People are systems thinker by nature I believe. If there are negative side effects to their actions then it's rather because they don't mind. A company, for instance, cares about environmental side effects only as much as it needs to in order to keep going. But that does not mean they don't see, say, their supply chain as a system. I'd say thinking in systems is more of an art than a rational thing. You have to do it as often as possible to get better at it but there isn't much you really need to know. Sit down, think really hard for 2 minutes, rest a bit and repeat the process as often as necessary.

mhluongo 8y ago
"Oh, you're a theoretical physicist? I find theoretical physics is just thinking. Think hard, and repeat!" There's more to both the study of systems and the mindset than "think". Knowledge of a subject is knowledge of differences and distinctions- reductionism doesn't mean you know something, often quite the opposite. It took many of us a long time to better think about complex systems, especially those systems we grew up as a part of. There are a number of useful mental patterns that have helped me in my limited journey (eg OODA, feedback mechanisms from cybernetics) and it's not clear to me I'd have recognized the concepts were valuable enough to name on my own.