Thinking in Systems

system? A system is a set of things—people, cells, molecules, or whatever—interconnected in such a way that they produce their own pattern of behavior over time

Stay humble—stay a learner.

Our models fall far short of representing the real world fully.

Everything we think we know about the world is a model.

There are no separate systems. The world is a continuum. Where to draw a boundary around a system depends on the purpose of the discussion.

• The least obvious part of the system, its function or purpose, is often the most crucial determinant of the system’s behavior.

Purposes are deduced from behavior, not from rhetoric or stated goals

If you look at that definition closely for a minute, you can see that a system must consist of three kinds of things: elements, interconnections, and a function or purpose.

A system* is an interconnected set of elements that is coherently organized in a way that achieves something.

Pictures work for this language better than words, because you can see all the parts of a picture at once.