Claudius Link reviewed Thinking in systems by Donella H. Meadows
Very insightful read
I'm progressing slowly but there are a ton of quotes and inspiration in the book
240 pages
English language
Published Aug. 8, 2008 by Chelsea.
4 stars
(50 reviews)
Meadows’ 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 essential primer brings systems thinking out of the realm of computers and equations and into the tangible world, showing readers 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 readers 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 …
Meadows’ 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 essential primer brings systems thinking out of the realm of computers and equations and into the tangible world, showing readers 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 readers 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 readers 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 readers avoid confusion and helplessness, the first step toward finding proactive and effective solutions.
Woile reviewed Thinking in systems by Donella H. Meadows
Review of 'Thinking in systems' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Excellent book which gives a new perspective by which to look at societal issues
ustits reviewed Thinking in systems by Donella H. Meadows
Review of 'Thinking in systems' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Gives a new way of looking at things
Miguel Ocaña reviewed Thinking in systems by Donella H. Meadows
Aprendiendo sobre pensamiento sistémico
5 stars
Me parece una muy buena introducción, te hace elevar la mirada para empezar a pensar de otra forma
Joshua reviewed Thinking in systems by Donella H. Meadows
Read last year, goal is to reread this year.
I want to read this a second time, more slowly, and think about how I can apply this to work and maybe other aspects of my life. Really enjoyed it.
Another test
5 stars
I did read this book, and while it was interesting, I found it to be pretty basic, though it may be of use to some. This review is mostly to test the instance, though
marksutherland reviewed Thinking in systems by Donella H. Meadows
Review of 'Thinking in systems' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Classic introduction to systems analysis which is uncannily prescient given that it's almost 30 years old. I was surprised how much of my formal education and experience fits within this framework without it being explicitly referenced: analog electronics, computer systems and networks, my layman's understanding of economics. The section on feedback loops and how dynamic behavior can be created from relatively simple models particularly stuck out. I suspect this will be a book I return to regularly and I'm a little frustrated I didn't get round to it sooner.
callan reviewed Thinking in systems by Donella H. Meadows
so appreciative of this book
4 stars
This book is used in a few different classes at mpow, and I’m glad it is. I’m giving a talk on Monday about how leaders are catalysts for change, and I am going to be meditating on a few of the ideas presented here - in particular, the need to break out of our positionality & perspective to change things in a non-destructive manner. It’s very prescient of the time we’re in now, and sad to think about how its warnings have been unheeded by engineers & technologists at a point where we’re more reliant on & worshipping of shitty models than ever.
codito reviewed Thinking in systems by Donella H. Meadows
Review of 'Thinking in systems' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
This book is life changing. Author does an amazing job at explaining the principles to reason over systems in the world around. Learn about the traps that systems fall into and ways to get out.
Sergey Machulskis reviewed Thinking in systems by Donella H. Meadows
Review of 'Thinking in systems' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Short and easy read. I wish it was useful.
From one point of view, it introduces powerful tools for system thinking (stocks, feedback loops, and a couple more) and provides many examples. I like how the author defines all the terms she uses. I like how the book is structured. There're hundreds of well-put sentences.
From another point of view, it could be much shorter. I wish there were better examples, but, I guess, the author wishes it too. I could almost feel her frustration when she tries to find an example that is correct, useful in real life, and is not an oversimplification of some system.
Sometimes it goes straight into politics. I find it disgusting because political problems don't even need any special ways of thinking to be criticized.
steezeburger reviewed Thinking in systems by Donella H. Meadows
Review of 'Thinking in systems' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
I think everyone should read this book. Such good explanations and examples of systems, how systems can go wrong, what to look out for, how to fix them, common misconceptions, etc. If you want to begin thinking about things holistically, this is the place the start.
Deuce reviewed Thinking in systems by Donella H. Meadows
Review of 'Thinking in systems' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
it is really good.
yes, it is idealistic.
yes, it is full of watery food you have no idea how to digest, how to cook.
but some of the ideas JUST HAD to be communicated when I was a kid. when we all were.
more like a framework written long before Dalio with his 'mentalware' became so popular.
Coornail reviewed Thinking in systems by Donella H. Meadows
Review of 'Thinking in systems' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Thinking in Systems gives you a useful new perspective for thinking about complex structures, whether you are an engineer, an economist or just want to understand the world a bit better.
haagen_daz reviewed Thinking in systems by Donella H. Meadows
Review of 'Thinking in systems : a primer' on 'GoodReads'
4 stars
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.
nicknicknicknick reviewed Thinking in systems by Donella H. Meadows
Review of 'Thinking in systems' on Goodreads
3 stars
1) "A system is a set of things---people, cells, molecules, or whatever---interconnected in such a way that they produce their own pattern of behavior over time. The system may be buffeted, constricted, triggered, or driven by outside forces. But the system's response to these forces is characteristic of itself, and that response is seldom simple in the real world."
2) "We are less likely to be surprised if we can see how events accumulate into dynamic patterns of behavior. The team is on a winning streak. The variance of the river is increasing, with higher floodwaters during rains and lower flows during droughts. The Dow has been trending up for two years. Discoveries of oil are becoming less frequent. The felling of forests is happening at an ever-increasing rate.
The behavior of a system is its performance over time---its growth, stagnation, decline, oscillation, randomness, or evolution. If the news …
1) "A system is a set of things---people, cells, molecules, or whatever---interconnected in such a way that they produce their own pattern of behavior over time. The system may be buffeted, constricted, triggered, or driven by outside forces. But the system's response to these forces is characteristic of itself, and that response is seldom simple in the real world."
2) "We are less likely to be surprised if we can see how events accumulate into dynamic patterns of behavior. The team is on a winning streak. The variance of the river is increasing, with higher floodwaters during rains and lower flows during droughts. The Dow has been trending up for two years. Discoveries of oil are becoming less frequent. The felling of forests is happening at an ever-increasing rate.
The behavior of a system is its performance over time---its growth, stagnation, decline, oscillation, randomness, or evolution. If the news did a better job of putting events into historical context, we would have better behavior-level understanding, which is deeper than event-level understanding. When a systems thinker encounters a problem, the first thing he or she does is look for data, time graphs, the history of the system. That's because long-term behavior provides clues to the underlying system structure. And structure is the key to understanding not just what is happening, but why."
3) "Clouds [in systems diagrams] stand for the beginnings and ends of flows. They are stocks---sources and sinks---that are being ignored at the moment for the purposes of simplifying the present discussion. They mark the boundary of the system diagram. They rarely mark a real boundary, because systems rarely have real boundaries. Everything, as they say, is connected to everything else, and not neatly. There is no clearly determinable boundary between the sea and the land, between sociology and anthropology, between an automobile's exhaust and your nose. There are only boundaries of word, thought, perception, and social agreement---artificial, mental-model boundaries.
The greatest complexities arise exactly at boundaries. There are Czechs on the German side of the border and Germans on the Czech side of the border. Forest species extend beyond the edge of the forest into the field; field species penetrate partway into the forest. Disorderly, mixed-up borders are sources of diversity and creativity."
4) "Some people think the fall of the communist Soviet Union has disproved the theories of Karl Marx, but this particular analysis of his---that market competition systematically eliminates market competition---is demonstrated wherever there is, or used to be, a competitive market. Because of the reinforcing feedback loop of success to the successful, the many automobile companies in the United States were reduced to three (not one, because of antitrust laws). In most major U.S. cities, there is only one newspaper left. In every market economy, we see long-term trends of declining numbers of farms, while the size of farms increases."
5) "There is yet one leverage point that is even higher than changing a paradigm. That is to keep oneself unattached in the arena of paradigms, to stay flexible, to realise that no paradigm is "true," that every one, including the one that sweetly shapes your own worldview, is a tremendously limited understanding of an immense and amazing universe that is far beyond human comprehension. It is to "get" at a gut level the paradigm that there are paradigms, and to see that that itself is a paradigm, and to regard that whole realization as devastatingly funny. It is to let go into not-knowing, into what the Buddhists call enlightenment."
Subjects
- System analysis -- Simulation methods
- Decision making -- Simulation methods
- Critical thinking -- Simulation methods
- Sustainable development -- Simulation methods
- Social sciences -- Simulation methods
- Economic development -- Environmental aspects -- Simulation methods
- Population -- Economic aspects -- Simulation methods
- Pollution -- Economic aspects -- Simulation methods
- Environmental education -- Simulation methods