Systems Thinking
Seeing stocks, flows, delays and loops rather than isolated events, so that behaviour is explained by structure rather than by blame. Interventions at the wrong leverage point produce policy resistance, where the system pushes back and restores its old behaviour. For investors it reframes an industry as a set of relationships that will keep producing the same outcomes until the structure changes.
12 books · 4 resources
Start here
- Thinking in SystemsDonella H. Meadows, 2008
- The Fifth DisciplinePeter M. Senge, 1990
- The Origin of WealthEric D. Beinhocker, 2006
Resources 4
- Feedback LoopsShane Parrish · essay · Balancing versus reinforcing loops, and how to tell.
- Externalities: Why We Can Never Do One ThingShane Parrish · essay · Every action has effects you did not price.
- Unintended ConsequencesShane Parrish · essay · How well-meant rules produce the opposite result.
- FeedbackMichael J. Mauboussin · paper · Positive and negative loops in markets and businesses.
Books 12
Christopher Alexander · 1977 · Design patterns for towns and buildings; the origin of pattern thinking
Douglas R. Hofstadter · 1979 · Self-reference and strange loops across mathematics, art and music
Donella H. Meadows · 2008
Donella H. Meadows, Dennis L. Meadows, Jorgen Randers · 1972
T2 Consilience
Edward O. Wilson · 1998 · Wilson's argument for the unity of knowledge across disciplines
Thomas D. Seeley · 1995 · Honeybee colonies as a decentralised allocation and search system
Robert Wright · 1988 · Information theory as a unifying idea across three scientists' work
Eric Abrahamson, David H. Freedman · 2006 · The case that disorder is often more efficient than imposed order