This book discusses different system archetypes, of which on the highest level are reinforcing feedback loops (where more stock results in more inflow or less outflow), and balancing feedback loops (where more stock results in less inflow or more outflow). This is in essence another way to describe exponential growth. While the book goes much further, learning the definition of a feedback loop was even valuable: in a system that involves a stock, >= 1 inflow, and >= 1 outflow, a feedback loop occurs when there is a relationship between the level of a stock and the level of a flow. Given the immense impact of feedback loops in all facets of (my) life, its certainly something worth studying more in depth. I've been thinking about feedback loops for years but never realized there was a field of study that covered the topic. Left me craving for more systems literature PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
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.
She reminds listeners to pay attention to what is important, not just what is quantifiable, to stay humble, and to stay a learner. Donella Meadows was known as much for nurturing positive outcomes as she was for delving into the science behind global dilemmas. While listeners will learn the conceptual tools and methods of systems thinking, the heart of the book is grander than methodology. 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. Some of the biggest problems facing the world - war, hunger, poverty, and environmental degradation - are essentially system failures. 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 listeners how to develop the systems-thinking skills that thought leaders across the globe consider critical for 21st-century life. Thinking in Systems is a concise and crucial book offering insight for problem-solving on scales ranging from the personal to the global. 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.
0 kommentar(er)
