Thinking in Systems

Customer Reviews

• Interesting Perspective on Systems  Mar 19, 2009 (11 of 11 found this helpful)

  While earning my degree in Mechanical Engineering, I was constantly bombarded by all kinds of systems. Thinking in systems is a critical part of many areas of engineering. Whether you are looking at an electrical circuit, an ecosystem, HVAC, pot roast or a nuclear reactor, there are many similarities in behavior and structure. Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows does a great job demonstrating the purpose and approach of mapping everything and anything to a logical system.
  
  The first half of the book introduces the reader gently to the basics of what a system is and how they are defined. You'll learn about feedback loops, flows and stocks. I found this section repetitive, basic and boring. However, if you haven't had this stuff drilled into your head for four years, it may have more to offer you.
  
  The second half of the book I found incredibly informative and interesting. The author departs from an engineering perspective here and you'll see less and less charts and diagrams at this point. Chapters five and six discuss common reasons why systems fail and how to help them succeed. There are some quirky assumptions we seem to erroneously make over and over. The author is kind enough to lay them out plainly so you don't fall victim to the same mistakes (though you surely will).
  
  The real joy of this book is the reason I wanted to become an engineer: it helps you understand more about the world around you. Thinking in Systems can apply to just about anything. It's a pretty powerful concept that could help you more logically organize your problem solving at work or home. This book only offers a basic introduction, but even with a degree in a related science, I still learned a lot (mostly in chapters 5 and 6). If you do pick it up and enjoy it, I'd recommend checking out some (slightly) more technical offering that delve into a wider range of systems modeling with higher math.

• Very useful introduction  Apr 16, 2009 (6 of 6 found this helpful)

  I first learned and practiced systems analysis back in the 1970s, and it's a skill that seems neglected in the training of many young professionals I come in contact with.
  
  "Thinking in Systems: A Primer" is a book I hoped would be informative and accessible for people who need to develop the skill or just refresh their own talents. It does present its subject systematically and without confusing jargon.
  
  While I found the writing clear and well-organized in its development and presentation of the subject, I found many of the illustrations less than helpful. I would have liked a less holistic and more concrete development of the analysis of the examples in the book.
  
  For use as a textbook, an appendix with a glossary of terms of art and sybols would be very helpful. Nonetheless, reading this will give the novice an appreciation of what systems analysis is, and why it is critical to problem solving. Its informal approach may be more suited for young people today than a more formal and rigidly structured treatment.

• THE handbook for living  Jan 12, 2009 (10 of 12 found this helpful)

  In a nutshell, this book is about systems. So much more than this, it is a journey into the meta-rules of how the universe and everything in it comes and "plays" together. There is one thing to be understood that applies to physiology, businesses, economies, plants and puppies alike. Everything is a system. And all systems have behaviors and rules. As Donella Meadows writes: "The trick...is to recognize what structures contain which latent behaviors, and what conditions release those behaviors -- and where possible to arrange the structures and conditions to reduce the probability of destructive behaviors and to encourage the possibility of beneficial ones."
  
  Grasping "the whole universe" is certainly a momumental task. The book brilliantly presents concepts in very graspable units. She starts with picturing what a system is -- a stock with inflows and outflows that affect its stability and all of which are further affected by feedback loops and delays.
  
  So armed with this model, individuals may be better guided in their decisions and actions as it becomes clear that actions can beget other actions and reactions (or unintended consequences.) But there is even more complexity. For instance, policies are a way to control the stocks and flows within a system. However, one of several behavior archetypes is policy resistance which comes from the bounded rationality of the actors within a system, each with his or her own goal. Meadows takes the reader on a deep and thought-provoking journey through all the behavior archetypes of systems. The result is an empowering "forewarned is forearmed" knowledge.
  
  That is the ultimate goal of this book. When people affect positive change in the world -- and it just may be everyone's duty to do that -- it is through smart and correct controls on a system. Ms. Meadows then gives the knowledge to do this. She lays out the leverage points in any system -- the opportunities for making things right or better. The coda is a legacy of thoughts to live by, the last and perhaps most important of which is "Don't Erode the Goal of Goodness."
  
  With such profound applicability, this book is the handbook for living. Everyone on the planet should read it.

• Perfect Introduction  Apr 24, 2009 (3 of 3 found this helpful)

  This little book zeros in on Systems Thinking and provides the reader with all the information they need to get started down the road of commonsense.
  
  It covers stock and flow diagrams in detail. The author's style of teaching and writing make the reading very easy. She uses examples that are really easy to relate to.
  
  This book will make you start looking at everything as a stock, flow, or feedback loop.
  
  The samples are intended to be built in Stella/iThink and there is an appendix that has all the formulas in it. The thinking in systems web site says they are developing the models for download. In the meantime, you can build them all pretty quickly using the formulas provided.
  
  If you have no Systems Thinking experience, this book is a perfect introduction that should be read before reading a book like Software Process Dynamics.
  
  I recommend this book to anyone that wants a little more logic in their thought life. I really does put a new perspective on things.

• Making the complex less complicated  Mar 15, 2009 (3 of 3 found this helpful)

  Systems are complex; they need not be complicated. Donella H. Meadows in her book "Thinking in Systems" does an excellent job in untangling the complex elements of systems so as to make an understanding of systems less complicated. With diagrams and clear explanations, Meadows provides the reader with the basic knowledge needed to comprehend the complex world of systems. But she does not end there. She also explains how systems may be influenced. The book identifies system traps and how to avoid them. Leverage points for intervening in systems are explained. How to live within systems is discussed.
  
  This is a timely book. The economic, social, political, and environmental crises we face today are systems problems. They can be resolved only if we understand the dynamics of systems. A quote in the book by Václav Havel reads that "we must learn to wait as we learn to create." An understanding of systems can give us the patience and knowledge we need as citizens and leaders to resolve our current crises. Reading this book is an excellent start toward achieving that understanding.