Thinking in Systems: International BestsellerThe classic book on systems thinking—with more than half a million copies sold worldwide! "This is a fabulous book... This book opened my mind and reshaped the way I think about investing."—Forbes
"Thinking in Systems is required reading for anyone hoping to run a successful company, community, or country. Learning how to think in systems is now part of change-agent literacy. And this is the best book of its kind."—Hunter Lovins
In the years following her role as the lead author of the international bestseller, Limits to Growth—the first book to show the consequences of unchecked growth on a finite planet—Donella Meadows remained a pioneer of environmental and social analysis until her untimely death in 2001. Thinking in Systems is a concise and crucial book offering insight for problem solving on scales ranging from the personal to the global. Edited by the Sustainability Institute’s Diana Wright, this essential primer brings systems thinking out of the realm of computers and equations and into the tangible world, showing readers how to develop the systems-thinking skills that thought leaders across the globe consider critical for 21st-century life. Some of the biggest problems facing the world—war, hunger, poverty, and environmental degradation—are essentially system failures. They cannot be solved by fixing one piece in isolation from the others, because even seemingly minor details have enormous power to undermine the best efforts of too-narrow thinking. While readers will learn the conceptual tools and methods of systems thinking, the heart of the book is grander than methodology. Donella Meadows was known as much for nurturing positive outcomes as she was for delving into the science behind global dilemmas. She reminds readers to pay attention to what is important, not just what is quantifiable, to stay humble, and to stay a learner. In a world growing ever more complicated, crowded, and interdependent, Thinking in Systems helps readers avoid confusion and helplessness, the first step toward finding proactive and effective solutions. |
From inside the book
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... mortality rate was 9 deaths a year out of every 1,000 people. Fertility was higher than mortality, so the reinforcing loop dominated the system. If those fertility and mortality rates continue unchanged, a child born now will see the ...
... mortality is much higher, 30 deaths per 1,000. Things get more interesting when fertility and mortality change over time. When the United Nations makes long-range population projections, it generally assumes that, as countries become ...
... mortality) create a change in the behavior over time of the stock (population)—the line bends. If, for example, world fertility falls steadily to equal mortality by the year 2035 and they both stay constant thereafter, the population ...
... po pu la tion (b illio ns) 25 20 15. Figure 25. Three possible behaviors of a population: growth, decline, and stabilization. Figure 26. Shifting dominance of fertility and mortality loops. 46 PArT One: SySTem STrUCTUre And BehAviOr.
... mortality fertility > mortality fertility = mortality 2000 2020 2040 2060 2080 2100 2120 year The second question—whether the system really will react this way—is more scientific. It's a question about how good the model is. Does it ...
Contents
11 | |
35 | |
Three Why Systems Work So Well | 75 |
five System Traps and Opportunities | 111 |
Six Leverage PointsPlaces to Intervene in a System | 145 |
Seven Living in a World of Systems | 166 |
Appendix | 187 |
Notes | 204 |