• Donella Meadows Systems

RIP Donella Meadows, a great thinker.The interested reader may also like this slideshare overview of Thinking in Systems ch. 1-3:Another of her well-known works is Leverage Points, which is also great and goes into more detail on some of that which is summarized in OP's linked article.,Having worked in automated systems analysis and optimization across several fields, I think Meadows' thinking is very instructive. Some of her notions which stand out in particular to me:. The importance of the effect of feedback loops in complex system. When unexpected or counterintuitive behavior occurs, a hidden or misunderstood reinforcement feedback loop is often at root. The requirement that systems that seek to automate or optimize complex interactive systems be constantly-adaptive because the system itself will interact with the observation/analysis/optimization acts. This can seem like crazy voodoo at first, but it is undeniable when you start to experience it in action.

Understanding of cost externalities vs benefit rewards for system actors and how they relate to system sources/sinks (or 'stocks and flows'). This drives so much of our economy, as well as the subsystems which feed it and she has some illuminating thoughts and analyses on addressing these issues broadly.This all of course goes well beyond the more basic material on oversimplification vs complexity in simulation or interventions, limits of rationality in system-actors, nonlinearity vs linear thinking, boundary conditions/non-boundary conditions, etc. For those intrigued by Systems Thinking but want to explore it in context of startups (or business in general), consider reading Scaling Lean by Ash Maurya 1. The whole Customer Factory 2 is based on a causal loop diagram of McClure's Pirate Metrics (AARRR); Ash also incorporates a lot of Theory of Constraints into the book.

Highly recommended.Systems Thinking was also part of Intel's culture under Andrew Grove (at least at the leadership level, from what I can tell). You can see evidence of that in his super-acclaimed book, High Output Management 3, especially the first couple of chapters (though he doesn't refer to it directly). Rich Jolly, another executive @ Intel, actually has a PhD in Systems Science and also wrote a book, Systems Thinking for Business 4, although it's definitely a bit more advanced and more theoretical than the others listed here.And, I whole-heartedly agree - Meadows' book is simply an AMAZING treatise of Systems Thinking. It's a great place to start regardless of your background (the beauty of ST is that it is applicable to a broad range of fields and disciplines).As an aside, does anyone know of any good/free/open source tools for drawing causal loop diagrams, or better yet, running simulations?1234.

The world is changing, as it's becoming evident that everything is more and more interconnected, and while studying History can help you figure some of these connections out, I believe that System Thinking gives a better insight about broader domains. After all, it's engineering applied to a broad field - not just maths, computers, and biology, but it's about finding out the connections that make our society/behaviors the way they are.It's like psychology. Some people nowadays still don't consider it a science, although it applies similar principles to human/animal behavior, but it's a science, isn't it?I believe it's a good way to discover new patterns to build more sustainable societies, as psychology is a good way to improve human life and relations among humans. Sure, some 'systems thinking' falls under the woo-umbrella. But I'd hardly call the hard systems sciences New Age pseudoscience.

System Dynamics, Agent-Based Modeling, etc all have methods and evaluative feedback loops in terms of measuring whether they are predictive or not. If you system dynamics model predicts a 10-year S-curve and you see 20 years of exponential growth, you probably don't have the model correct.If you stop at the level of 'everything is connected' - it can lead to all sorts of woo-ey conclusions - much like a light understanding of quantum physics can (some of which I happen to agree with, but aren't yet falsifiable) - but SD was developed at MIT by engineers. There's pitching an idea or work that you've done, which seems to work, even where it goes against the HN hivemind (see especially @idlewords / Maciej Czeglowski), where good citizenship's been established.I thought there was a general guideline against submitting employment posts, though I can't find that in the HN guidelines or FAQ.

Either it's mentioned elsewhere, has changed, or my weed's too good.As for the response - I'm commenting on what I've observed over years. Some forms of more direct promotion seem to provoke the negatives. Sometimes I agree, sometimes not.

Download EBOOK Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update PDF for freeCategory:The author of the book:Format files: PDF, EPUB, TXT, DOCXThe size of the: 28.47 MBLanguage: EnglishISBN-13: 586Edition: Chelsea Green Publishing CoDate of issue: 1 June 2004Description of the book 'Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update':In 1972, three scientists from MIT created a computer model that analyzed global resource consumption and production. Their results shocked the world and created stirring conversation about global 'overshoot, ' or resource use beyond the carrying capacity of the planet.

Now, preeminent environmental scientists Donnella Meadows, Jorgen Randers, and Dennis Meadows have teamed up again to update and expand their original findings in The Limits to Growth: The 30 Year Global Update. Meadows, Randers, and Meadows are international environmental leaders recognized for their groundbreaking research into early signs of wear on the planet. Citing climate change as the most tangible example of our current overshoot PDF, the scientists now provide us with an updated scenario and a plan to reduce our needs to meet the carrying capacity of the planet. Over the past three decades, population growth and global warming have forged on with a striking semblance to the scenarios laid out by the World3 computer model in the original Limits to Growth.

While Meadows, Randers, and Meadows do not make a practice of predicting future environmental degradation, they offer an analysis of present and future trends in resource use, and assess a variety of possible outcomes. In many ways, the message contained in ePub Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update is a warning. Overshoot cannot be sustained without collapse. But, as the authors are careful to point out, there is reason to believe that humanity can still reverse some of its damage to Earth if it takes appropriate measures to reduce inefficiency and waste. Written in refreshingly accessible prose, Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update is a long anticipated revival of some of the original voices in the growing chorus of sustainability. Limits to Growth: The 30 Year Update is a work of stunning intelligence that will expose for humanity the hazy but critical line PDF between human growth and human development.Reviews of the Limits to Growth: The 30-Year UpdateUp to now concerning the guide we have Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update suggestions customers have not still quit their review of the game, you aren't make out the print but. However, if you have presently see this book and you really are able to help to make their particular results well have you hang around to go away an overview on our website (we will submit the two bad and the good critiques).

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Donella Meadows Systems

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