Thinking in Systems

The book starts with a mechanical rigid approach to systems. It gives you precise boundaries such as: elements, interconnections, stocks, and flows. However, it's a bait and switch. As the book unfolds the nature of reality sets in, with the complexity of timing, non-linearity, and bleeding, intersecting systems. Models are error prone, because in the real world, you can never map a system perfectly because the boundaries humans create to feel a sense of control, are artificial beliefs and concepts, with a few loose data points, and grand sweeping probabilities thrown into the mix.

For example, where does a forest end? At the edge of the trees? In the clouds that water it? In the economy of the loggers? Ultimately, systems are bespoke, undefinable, and infinitely complex because everything is ultimately connected to everything else. We learn that the definitions we learned in chapter 1 are ranked as the least effective. Then the book switches again into a plea for ethical behaviour. The take away message is stay humble, embrace ambiguity and complexity, iterate, stay agile and go with the flow. Meadows writes "We cannot control or precisely predict systems; we can only dance with them".

Ultimately I thought it was ok. For someone who's never thought about the universe's intersecting relationships, or for someone who keeps overconfidently predicting things incorrectly, I'd suggest reading this book. However, personally I found it long winded. The bait and switch at the beginning felt like time wasted, and the end conclusion ended up being something I already agree with. I was hoping to learn something new.