The Systems Thinker: Essential Thinking Skills For Solving Problems, Managing Chaos, and Creating Lasting Solutions in a Complex World (The Systems Thinker Series)

This is by far, the most comprehensive book that I have ever read on Systems Thinking. Outstanding intellectual journey of science, history and philosophy to develop the systems view of life. While the book is categorized as science oriented given the authors' physics background, the Systems Thinker is so much more than science. The underlying theories apply to all aspects of human activity such as law, economics, society, government etc. The essence of the book is the disconnect between the non-linear processes based on relationships, forms, feedback loops and our linear models that stem from a conventional, cause-effect world view. This gap in thinking and reality explains why humanity faces so many ecological and social problems. The book starts by providing the development from Newtonian mechanistic thinking to an evolving holistic approach and how that transition occurred. It tackles more scientific fields as physics, biology, chemistry, even sociology where changes in focus have been made. He explains how thinking shifted from analyzing small particles to looking things as a whole. We live in a time where all current systems of human thought from physics to politics are dominated by a set of underlying assumptions, that are mostly outdated and no longer work in a very different world that is more interdependent and connected than ever before in human history. Even if you don't have a science background the authors present the material in a coherent way. This is a must read if you are interested in complexity and systems theory or if you are looking at issues of sustainability.

Interesting read. I was hoping to learn a bit more how to apply it in my job as an enterprise architecture, where the system is the ... enterprise. A lot of the examples and cases are very recognizable. And a lot of the suggestions are applicable. What I fail to see is the difference between architecture and systems thinking. But that’s probably me :)

The book is a great read. It teaches you systems thinking fundamentals, which are key in wholesome problem sloving. I really recommend it to anyone who wants to provide lasting solutions to individual and corporate challenges.

If you studied a field other than science at a college or university which was heavily focused on the sciences, as I did, you'd readily recognize the pattern of this book. But not in a good way. Every aspect of an introductory book should be laid out in straightforward, careful fashion. The author clearly worked toward that goal. Many of the basic concepts are defined in easy-to-understand terms, virtually every concept is supported by an easy-to-understand example. In those ways, this book does, in fairness, remind me of the texts I studied in science courses at my university. Where the book falls short it also reminds me of the texts I studied in science courses at my university. Taking the book as a whole (in a sense, at a systems level), my overall impression of this book's shortcomings is that it does not seem that the author wrote at any meaningful length as part of his day-to-day work, which might be expected from reading his brief biography. It also does not seem that the publisher devoted any meaningful effort to editing the text. It's easy to criticize a text for tangential sentences written without tying up the loose ends of the tangential sentences, faulty subject-verb agreement, lack of parallel structure (all of which are found in this book with some frequency). Those unnecessarily distract from the author's points, but not so badly that the learning points are obscured, they just leave this reader (and expect I speak for more than myself) with minor disappointments about the author's writing abilities and the publisher's lack of meaningful editing effort. More importantly, the arguments in favor of systems thinking are incomplete or disorganized (a few in this book are incomplete, most are complete but the sentences are out of order - sometimes very badly, distracting the reader from the learning points by forcing the reader either to fill in gaps of basic information or to reconstruct paragraphs of out-of-order sentences to make sense of the argument. The gaps and lack of order don't give any impression of being used as a pedagogical tool to force the reader to think, they apparently were simply poor writing. I spend time on them here in this review because, in my experience, the author forced me thru those corrective steps *so* frequently that it was badly distracting from the overall purpose of the book, so much so that I was already struggling halfway thru the book with the idea of finishing the book. After all, I was here for the sake of learning about systems thinking, not to decode what the author meant (which contributed virtually nothing to understanding systems thinking, it only left me less and less interested in the subject) . But for the sake of gleaning as much as I could from the book and having a growing sense that I wanted to write a review of it, I did finish this book. The Conclusion section of the book is truly excellent, it's obvious that the author spent a great deal of time and effort on this, so good that I think it would have worked just as well (maybe even better) in the Introduction section of the book. I think this is a worthy subject (systems affect all of us, and we should all know more about systems thinking), taught by a worthy teacher (he obviously is very bright and knows what he's talking about...if he were teaching in a classroom, I imagine his lectures would be better than the written material), with enough good material to justify 3 stars. If you want good material and don't mind deciphering the writing of a technical mind, this book is for you.

Great intro into systems thinking! Really lays a good foundation for the major principles and pillars of systems thinking. I'm looking forward to reading the entire series.

I selected this book to refresh my 40+ years old undergraduate courses. I was sorely disappointed. All the illustrations are sourced (and cited) from another work. The explanations very frequently cited two other sources. The examples used in the latter portion of the book were largely social and heavily leaned to progressive political explanations. This flies in the face of exhortations earlier in the book that a "systems thinker" explores all alternatives. If the author was serious about that approach other alternatives would have been explored and a rigorous analysis of those alternatives developed and presented. Sorely disappointed, as systems thinking can be a powerful tool in analyzing much more than the perceived current social problem sets. The book seemed to start out on this line, discussing the problems of the interaction of complex systems of systems. Sadly, once beyond some of the rudimentary diagrams it became evident that the analysis required to broadly approach the systems of systems problem sets was not going to be addressed.

If you're anything like me, sometimes it seems like Murphy's Law is all too often in effect. I have my share of days when I feel like anything that can go wrong will go wrong. This book made me feel more confident that I have the power to change that. It pointed out that our traditional ways of thinking make us look for causes and effects and it leads us to try to place blame on outside forces when things go wrong. That may be satisfying in the moment, but it doesn't really help us solve the problem and soon we are right back where we started or maybe even worse off than before. Something the author said really stuck with me. He wrote that thinking in a traditional linear way is like looking carefully at and analyzing one piece of the puzzle, but it doesn't step back to look at how that piece fits into and contributes to the picture of the whole puzzle. Systems thinking is when we look for how everything is connected and contributing to our current situation. It is only when we understand those connections that we can take control and get to a solution better than we ever have before. If you're looking for a book that gives you tips and strategies on how to become a better systems thinking that you can start using in your life today, this is the book. It certainly helped me.

This book provides a useful straightforward description (with examples) of Systems Thinking. However, the examples reflect the author’s social and political views. A more diverse collection of examples would have made the example more useful. If the author wishes to express his views using a systems approach he should write a book specially titled and described as doing so. I would read such a book, but my purpose for reading this book was not to learn his views and his support for those views. There are many typographical and grammatical errors.

Eu esperava encontrar mais exemplos de aplicação, aprofundamento no pensamento sistêmico e melhor explicação de frameworks para uso dele. Encontrei uma explicação rasa para o preço e tamanho da leitura. Alguns pequenos erros de edição também, com textos se repetindo.

Contains some useful examples and anecdotal evidence but is not well written compared to many other books on similar subjects.

I have read several books on critical thinking and mental models. This book connects it all in systems thinking. I never made those connections before. Quite an eye opener!

Material can benefit from better organization, explanation and uniform treatment. Also, looks a bit raw, draft like with most of the pictures compressed horizontally and turned upside down. Expected better for the price.

The world is more complex than most people think. It's not just input and output, it's about systems. The book does a good job of giving a structured overview of the topic with good examples.