Thinking in Systems: A Primer
by Donella H. Meadows, Diana Wright (Editor)
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In the years following her role as the lead author of the international best seller, Limits to Growth - the first book to show the consequences of unchecked growth on a finite planet - Donella Meadows remained a pioneer of environmental and social analysis until her untimely death in 2001. Thinking in Systems is a concise and crucial book offering insight for problem-solving on scales ranging from the personal to the global. Edited by the Sustainability Institute's Diana Wright, this show more essential primer brings systems thinking out of the realm of computers and equations and into the tangible world, showing listeners how to develop the systems-thinking skills that thought leaders across the globe consider critical for 21st-century life. Some of the biggest problems facing the world - war, hunger, poverty, and environmental degradation - are essentially system failures. They cannot be solved by fixing one piece in isolation from the others, because even seemingly minor details have enormous power to undermine the best efforts of too-narrow thinking. While listeners will learn the conceptual tools and methods of systems thinking, the heart of the book is grander than methodology. Donella Meadows was known as much for nurturing positive outcomes as she was for delving into the science behind global dilemmas. She reminds listeners to pay attention to what is important, not just what is quantifiable, to stay humble, and to stay a learner. In a world growing ever more complicated, crowded, and interdependent, Thinking in Systems helps listeners avoid confusion and helplessness, the first step toward finding proactive and effective solutions. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
I was initially somewhat disconcerted by ‘Thinking in Systems’, because it reads a lot like a textbook, and I haven’t read a textbook for ten years. It doesn’t take the tone of an academic book (the passive voice, for example), as I'd expected. This is hardly a complaint; it was much more readable than I thought it would be. Indeed, it’s a very accessible introduction to systems thinking, which I’ve come across here and there in my academic research (mostly in spatial planning and mobility studies). The idea of viewing the world, and collective human behaviour in particular, as a series of systems is an immensely powerful and useful one.
Although the book doesn’t explicitly position itself as a critique of neoclassical show more economics, it is implicitly just that. I have long found it frustrating and idiotic that markets are assumed by default to operate freely and tend to equilibrium, rather than being discussed in terms of their obvious, massive flaws. For example, the housing market. To even call it a market is a stretch. Demand is volatile and heavily dependent on a myriad of interconnected economic, social, political, cultural, and historical factors. Supply is extremely heterogeneous, changes very slowly, and can be put to multiple uses. Equilibrium is a meaningless concept in such a context and prices provide very little information about what’s happening at any given point. It is much more useful to view housing using the frames discussed in this primer: as a very complex system of stocks and flows, rife with feedbacks, delays, nonlinearities, rules, and contradictory goals.
The book really does what it says on the tin: provides a basic primer. I found it helpful to systematise references I’d come across here and there, as well as providing an intriguing intellectual framework to counter the oversimplified linearities of econometrics. It also encourages a certain humility generally lacking in academia:
Despite the somewhat downbeat tone above, I found the contents uplifting and encouraging overall. Probably because systems thinking introduces an alternative to neoclassical economics, allowing the structure and aims of endless growth (for example) to be questioned. It also provides a much better approach to environmental policy than economics can offer. (Neoclassical economics simply cannot cope with the threshold effects and nonlinearities of climate change. Witness the endless and counterproductive debate on an optimal discount rate for climate change mitigation.) One of the most memorable passages in the book is a quote from Fred Kofman:
I’ve been meaning to read this book for about six years and cannot remember how it came to be on my to-read list or who recommended it to me. I’m glad I finally got around to it, as the conceptual models it advances will be helpful to my research and general thinking about the world. It’s distinctly thought-provoking. Helpfully, all its main concepts and terms are summarised in an appendix at the end. show less
Although the book doesn’t explicitly position itself as a critique of neoclassical show more economics, it is implicitly just that. I have long found it frustrating and idiotic that markets are assumed by default to operate freely and tend to equilibrium, rather than being discussed in terms of their obvious, massive flaws. For example, the housing market. To even call it a market is a stretch. Demand is volatile and heavily dependent on a myriad of interconnected economic, social, political, cultural, and historical factors. Supply is extremely heterogeneous, changes very slowly, and can be put to multiple uses. Equilibrium is a meaningless concept in such a context and prices provide very little information about what’s happening at any given point. It is much more useful to view housing using the frames discussed in this primer: as a very complex system of stocks and flows, rife with feedbacks, delays, nonlinearities, rules, and contradictory goals.
The book really does what it says on the tin: provides a basic primer. I found it helpful to systematise references I’d come across here and there, as well as providing an intriguing intellectual framework to counter the oversimplified linearities of econometrics. It also encourages a certain humility generally lacking in academia:
Self-organising, nonlinear, feedback systems are inherently unpredictable. They are not controllable. They are understandable only in the most general way. The goal of foreseeing the future exactly and preparing for it perfectly is unrealisable. The idea of making a complex system do just what you want it to do can be achieved only temporarily, at best. We can never fully understand our world, not in the way our reductionist science has led us to expect. Our science itself, from quantum theory to the mathematics of chaos, leads us into irreducible uncertainty. For any objective other than the most trivial, we can’t optimise; we don’t even know what to optimise. We can’t keep track of everything. We can’t find a proper, sustainable relationship to nature, each other, or the institutions we create, if we try to do it from the role of omniscient conqueror.
Despite the somewhat downbeat tone above, I found the contents uplifting and encouraging overall. Probably because systems thinking introduces an alternative to neoclassical economics, allowing the structure and aims of endless growth (for example) to be questioned. It also provides a much better approach to environmental policy than economics can offer. (Neoclassical economics simply cannot cope with the threshold effects and nonlinearities of climate change. Witness the endless and counterproductive debate on an optimal discount rate for climate change mitigation.) One of the most memorable passages in the book is a quote from Fred Kofman:
[Language] can serve as a medium through which we create new understandings and new realities as we begin to talk about them. In fact, we don’t talk about what we see; we only see what we talk about. Our perspectives on the world depend on the interaction of our nervous system and our language - both act as filters through which we perceive the world… The language and information systems of an organisation are not an objective means of describing an outside reality - they fundamentally structure the perceptions and actions of its members. To reshape the measurement and communication systems of a [society] is to reshape all potential interactions at the most fundamental level.
I’ve been meaning to read this book for about six years and cannot remember how it came to be on my to-read list or who recommended it to me. I’m glad I finally got around to it, as the conceptual models it advances will be helpful to my research and general thinking about the world. It’s distinctly thought-provoking. Helpfully, all its main concepts and terms are summarised in an appendix at the end. show less
This is one of those books that where it was almost useless to highlight valuable statements because I was highlighting multiple things every page. Meadows does not go into the mathematics of systems theory. As the title suggests, she focuses on the key ideas so that the reader learns to think about systems and their common properties.
One of the key takeaways from this book -- if I had to choose just one -- is that systems have common properties that apply regardless of their type. There are ways of thinking about environmental, human, technological, and other systems that show their deep similarities and give insights into their differences.
Overall, this book was readable and should be a required read for anyone who designs or show more influences systems, big or small. show less
One of the key takeaways from this book -- if I had to choose just one -- is that systems have common properties that apply regardless of their type. There are ways of thinking about environmental, human, technological, and other systems that show their deep similarities and give insights into their differences.
Overall, this book was readable and should be a required read for anyone who designs or show more influences systems, big or small. show less
I read this because I felt that I functioned as part of many systems, that they were largely dysfunctional, and that I wanted to change that.
I learned about some ways of thinking about complex systems, and some ways they fall into dysfunctional behaviors. I learned about some sorts of stimuli that seem to have more or less impact on systems. I also read about an attitude towards existing with systems that was focused on harmony and not on control. This helped articulate a new lens with which to see the world; it also illuminated another aspect of what sort of life I want to lead.
Definitely worth the time spent reading and thinking.
I learned about some ways of thinking about complex systems, and some ways they fall into dysfunctional behaviors. I learned about some sorts of stimuli that seem to have more or less impact on systems. I also read about an attitude towards existing with systems that was focused on harmony and not on control. This helped articulate a new lens with which to see the world; it also illuminated another aspect of what sort of life I want to lead.
Definitely worth the time spent reading and thinking.
Systems thinking is en vogue these days as we increasingly realize how complex the world really is. Too many manage enterprises based on small rules and adages, but neglect to see how the bigger picture works. Then they are surprised when their interventions end up with a different effect. That’s because the rest of the world works systemically through feedback loops. The small game is not the only relevant factor.
Before she died, Dartmouth professor Donella Meadows compiled this manuscript to encapsulate this perspective. This book, compiled posthumously by Diana Wright, offers the best, most concise introduction to this field of systems thinking. It enlightens by giving readers access to an Ivy League course through its contents.
Any show more worker, knowledge worker or otherwise, can deeply benefit from seeing the life systems around themselves. Meadows focuses on examples in economic and environmental systems, but this philosophy can also apply to engineering and information systems. The world gives us plenty of feedback, and the challenge becomes identifying the correct measurables and values. Systems thinkers have emphasized the different way systems universally operate and how we can make use of them for individual and common good.
This book takes an academic, even philosophical, approach to this topic. It does not deal with many industry specifics. That perspective may turn some folks off, but it teaches us how to think about the systemic structures around us. Meadows identifies abstract principles like feedback loops that normally return to baseline or approach a goal. She helps us care for everything that goes on around us, whether in the business, personal, or personal domains. show less
Before she died, Dartmouth professor Donella Meadows compiled this manuscript to encapsulate this perspective. This book, compiled posthumously by Diana Wright, offers the best, most concise introduction to this field of systems thinking. It enlightens by giving readers access to an Ivy League course through its contents.
Any show more worker, knowledge worker or otherwise, can deeply benefit from seeing the life systems around themselves. Meadows focuses on examples in economic and environmental systems, but this philosophy can also apply to engineering and information systems. The world gives us plenty of feedback, and the challenge becomes identifying the correct measurables and values. Systems thinkers have emphasized the different way systems universally operate and how we can make use of them for individual and common good.
This book takes an academic, even philosophical, approach to this topic. It does not deal with many industry specifics. That perspective may turn some folks off, but it teaches us how to think about the systemic structures around us. Meadows identifies abstract principles like feedback loops that normally return to baseline or approach a goal. She helps us care for everything that goes on around us, whether in the business, personal, or personal domains. show less
Thinking in systems is a fascinating, if somewhat dated book. Meadows was a pioneering contributor to systems thinking, a member of the Limits to Growth membership, who's life and career was cut tragically short by cerebral meningitis. Thinking in Systems is assembled from notes and lecturers, and represents a consistent whole anchored by the material in the essay Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System
Systems are modelled by stocks, flows, and sinks. Stocks are quantities that we care about, hopefully measurable, often not. Flows increase or decrease stocks, and can be fixed or vary based on natural, human, controlled, or uncontrolled processes. Sinks are much like stocks, but are assumed to be set to an infinity, an show more approximation that makes calculation easier. The basic dynamics of systems are feedback loops, delays, and oscillations. Negative feedback loops make the level of a stock trend towards a finite value. Positive feedback does the opposite, increasing the amount of a stock higher and higher until some countervailing feedback loop appears. And finally, due to innate delays, systems tend to oscillate rather than settling at a single configuration.
Where this gets tricky is first in mathematical modelling, because assigning limits to systems and making sure that the models match the real world is more of an art than a science ("All models are wrong, but some are useful" --George Box). And second, in convincing others of the somewhat counter-intuitive results of systems thinking. The one that jumped out to me was a simple inventory management model which entered into wildly uncontrolled oscillations as the decision to re-order became more responsive to inventory levels. Desired behave was achieved by basing re-order decisions on bi-weekly moving averages.
Meadows usefully provides the math at the end of the book. I feel like a contemporary update would include computer resources for experimentation and examples updated from the immediate post-Cold War where this book was written, but this is a useful book. show less
Systems are modelled by stocks, flows, and sinks. Stocks are quantities that we care about, hopefully measurable, often not. Flows increase or decrease stocks, and can be fixed or vary based on natural, human, controlled, or uncontrolled processes. Sinks are much like stocks, but are assumed to be set to an infinity, an show more approximation that makes calculation easier. The basic dynamics of systems are feedback loops, delays, and oscillations. Negative feedback loops make the level of a stock trend towards a finite value. Positive feedback does the opposite, increasing the amount of a stock higher and higher until some countervailing feedback loop appears. And finally, due to innate delays, systems tend to oscillate rather than settling at a single configuration.
Where this gets tricky is first in mathematical modelling, because assigning limits to systems and making sure that the models match the real world is more of an art than a science ("All models are wrong, but some are useful" --George Box). And second, in convincing others of the somewhat counter-intuitive results of systems thinking. The one that jumped out to me was a simple inventory management model which entered into wildly uncontrolled oscillations as the decision to re-order became more responsive to inventory levels. Desired behave was achieved by basing re-order decisions on bi-weekly moving averages.
Meadows usefully provides the math at the end of the book. I feel like a contemporary update would include computer resources for experimentation and examples updated from the immediate post-Cold War where this book was written, but this is a useful book. show less
I've been meaning to read this book for years. It's a short yet insightful look into systems and it uses real world examples of how things can go bad and what can be done to fix a broken system. The book even goes as far as to make predictions about our future political & economical landscapes (in the start of the 90's) that end up being extremely accurate in today's world. I highly suggest anyone with an interest in complexity read this one.
What I really liked about this book is that it succeeds at explaining systems theory in a very basic and nonmathematical way that is accessible to the average reader. When I say nonmathematical I mean there are no equations, but there are graphs and many “stock-and-flow” diagrams that use pipes, faucets, and tanks to explain the concepts.
Understanding systems is fundamental for people to be able to make intelligent decisions about the economy, the environment, and other social issues. We all grow up in a world that appears “linear”. If we push on something it moves, if we push a little harder it moves a little farther or faster. Most things designed for human use (toys, games, appliances, electronics) conform to linear show more principles for the very simple reason that as humans, that’s what we expect. When you turn the volume knob slightly you expect the volume to increase slightly. But most natural systems of any complexity do not operate in this fashion. They are nonlinear - meaning that there is not a linear relationship between input and output. For instance if you deplete a naturally occurring resource past its boundaries it may crash, never to recover again. The problem is that most of us don’t have an intuitive feeling for how complex systems operate. This book does a great job of teaching some of these principles. show less
Understanding systems is fundamental for people to be able to make intelligent decisions about the economy, the environment, and other social issues. We all grow up in a world that appears “linear”. If we push on something it moves, if we push a little harder it moves a little farther or faster. Most things designed for human use (toys, games, appliances, electronics) conform to linear show more principles for the very simple reason that as humans, that’s what we expect. When you turn the volume knob slightly you expect the volume to increase slightly. But most natural systems of any complexity do not operate in this fashion. They are nonlinear - meaning that there is not a linear relationship between input and output. For instance if you deplete a naturally occurring resource past its boundaries it may crash, never to recover again. The problem is that most of us don’t have an intuitive feeling for how complex systems operate. This book does a great job of teaching some of these principles. show less
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Trained as a biophysicist, American scientist Donella H. Meadows earned a Ph.D. from Harvard University. Early in her career, Meadows was a member of a joint Harvard-MIT research group that developed a computer simulation model clarifying relationships between growth and finite resources on the earth. Using this model, the Club of Rome sponsored show more extensive research that resulted in the best-selling book, "The Limits to Growth" (1972), co-authored by Meadows and others. Attention was focused on a doomsday prognosis if growth continued unchecked. Meadows and her associates, however, presented options for achieving a sustainable society if there were a movement away from dependence on growth, equity in wealth, and if technologies were used to enhance efficiency of natural-resource use. "Toward Global Equilibrium" (1973) and "Dynamics of Growth in a Finite World" (1974) are companion technical volumes to "The Limits to Growth." They present reports on the simulation models, examinations of economic, political, and ethical implications of the findings, and a detailed description of the computer model, World3. In addition to her research sponsored by the Club of Rome, Meadows, as one of the editors of "Groping in the Dark" (1982), fully articulates that basic human needs can be met in the future if social and political structures, as well as values, do not hinder efforts for sustainability and equity. Meadows states that equity, rather than individual and national-wealth aggrandizement, is increasingly recognized as a major factor in planetary survival. Twenty years after "The Limits to Growth," Meadows and others in "Beyond the Limits" (1992) find that some options for a sustainable future have narrowed. However, they claim that new technologies can, if employed wisely, contribute to sustainability. The book emphasizes social-policy options rather than models. After working for two years on the Club of Rome research project, Meadows became a member of the faculty at Dartmouth College where she was systems analyst and adjunct professor in the Environmental Studies Program. Meadows has a lifestyle that reflects her views about sustaining finite resources and valuing equity rather than personal economic gain. She has lived in a commune, studied Zen Buddhism, and believed that people today are ultimately responsible for a future that holds "unspeakable horrors or undreamed-of wonders." She died in 2001 from a bacterial infection. Her titles include Limits to Growth-The 30 year Update, The Electronic Oracle: Computer Models and Social Decisions and Thinking in Systems - A Primer. 30 show less
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- Pensare per sistemi. Interpretare il presente, orientare il futuro verso uno sviluppo sostenibile
- Original title
- Thinking in Systems: A Primer
- Original publication date
- 2008
- Epigraph
- If a factory is torn down but the rationality which produced it is left standing, then that rationality will simply produce another factory. If a revolution destroys a government, but the systematic patterns of thought that p... (show all)roduced that government are left intact, then those patterns will repeat themselves.... There's so much talk about the system. And so little understanding.
---Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Dedication
- For Dana
(1941-2001)
and for all those who would learn from her - First words
- Early on in teaching about systems, I often bring out a Slinky.
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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