Thinking In Systems

After writing a short take about system dynamics I recently picked up the book Thinking In Systems again. And this time I finished it.

The book talks about systems, flows, stock, balancing and reinforcing feedback loops, traps, leverages, etc.

I won’t add my notes/ highlights here. Instead, you can take a look at the very good chapter wise summary of the book. A note: The chapter 5 video talks about inventor. That should be intervenor.

The book is written in a simple style. Mentions concepts, terminologies, ideas, etc. Not too technical. And that makes it somewhat easier to read. To the author’s credit, she has deliberately made it even simpler. If you watch some videos on youtube related to the topic, you can see that the simplicity of the book must have been a choice.

There are systems everywhere. And if you pay attention, you can see those systems. From the solar system to your body to the world economy. Almost all are dynamic. If you are familiar with a system under consideration (say your work area, your body, your city, etc.) then it is likely that you know what factors come into play. I think the book will help you reason about a system you are not very familiar with. It, of course, does not make you an expert but it gives you terminology, ideas, etc. to know about and deal with a system.

While reading the book you can immediately relate some ideas to your familiar systems and they are likely to make sense. For example, the author says- ‘it’s easier to learn about a system’s elements than about its interconnections’. It immediately reminded me of Michael Nygard’s observation in Release It: ‘Every architecture diagram ever drawn has boxes and arrows… A new architect will focus on the boxes; an experienced one is more interested in the arrows.’

Then there are other ideas which may take some time to make sense: ‘Structure determines what behaviors are latent in the system.’ Or ‘Systems fool us by presenting themselves- or we fool ourselves by seeing the world- as a series of events… We are less likely to be surprised if we can see how events accumulate into dynamic patterns of behavior… 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.’ Now these sentences may make more sense when we know that ‘the structure of a system is its interlocking stocks, flows, and feedback loops’. Then for example, we can make sense of why every year mango sellers tell you ‘mangoes are in short supply this year’ or why there have been multiple conflicts between say India and Pak or Iran and the US. (While we are on the topic of conflicts between nations here’s a book recommendation: Prisoners Of Geography by Tim Marshall.)