visual thinking about systems thinking

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I’ve been doodling about systems thinking and toying with the idea of an ABC book for a bit now. Why?  Because thinking about systems is a powerful way to attack complex problems and because systems thinking should be accessible to everyone.
So why not invite everyone to help?  Check out the pictures below. This is definitely a work in progress. Maybe you have something to add. Shoot me an email; post a comment. Draw a doodle. Consider this just a start.  More to come.visual thinking about systems
vt balancing loopscausal loopsvt from this to that 2vt from this to that

vt varietyvt b is forvt questioning the questionsvt varietyvt viablevt relationships vt transdisciplinaryvt fvt b is forvt a is forvt balancing loopssubsystemsvt universal darwinism

2 thoughts on “visual thinking about systems thinking”

  1. Paul d'Aoust

    This is exciting stuff. I think systems thinking needs to be given the same value as critical thinking in our teaching (public schools, informal education, interesting books, whatever). No wait, better yet — critical thinking and systems thinking actually need to be taught, period. Right now you don’t get that sort of stuff unless you do a master’s degree or look for it yourself (which, of course, is a critical thinking skill itself).
    For some really cool stuff re: visualising systems thinking concepts, check out Nicky Case. Here are a few of his projects for starters:
    http://ncase.me/trust/
    The Evolution of Trust, a game using ‘game theory’ to demonstrate why trust breaks down in societies.
    http://blog.ncase.me/environment-economy/
    Environment ⇆ Economy, a blog post that uses feedback loops to explain why the economy has been eating the environment, and what happens to the economy when the environment taps out.

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