Definitions
System is defined
as: ”A set of things working together as parts of a mechanism or an
interconnecting network; a complex whole or ”A set of principles or
procedures according to which something is done; an organized scheme
or method.
Examples
Universe is a
system. Our bodies, habits and skills are systems. Most of the things
we do are systems. Some systems are consisted on smaller subsystems
like our bodies have skin, organs, etc. Latticework of mental models
is an example of a thinking system.
Self-reinforcing and
self-stabilizing systems and delays
Universe is always
expanding. The interest on interest compounds the debt. In
self-reinforcing systems, the previous outputs of the systems change
the inputs coming into the systems and amplify the outputs coming out
of the system. What happens is that eventually self-reinforcing
system gets to the point where the amplifying destroys the whole
system. The other possibility is that the limit of growth comes to
the point where the growth stops, slows, diverts or reverses. When
this happens, the system becomes self-stabilizing.
In
self-stabilizing systems the previous outputs of the systems changes
the inputs by stopping, slowing, diverting or reversing the growth of
the outputs. This self-correction keeps the system working without
exploding. Every natural system has an optimal growth rate. We should
use them into our advantage. Our skin keeps the temperature of our
body from overheating by sweating if we are in an environment in
which the temperature is too high or we are exercising. It can be
hard to notice these balancing processes, even though they are mostly
necessary. We should keep the self-reinforcing and self-stabilizing
systems and their interaction in balance. We should always limit the
effect of self-stabilizing processes on self-reinforcing processes in
balance.
All the systems
have delays. People have a natural tendency in concentrating on the
consequences we see right after we have done something. The second
and third order consequences may come after a long delay. In complex
systems, consequences can come after years. We may concentrate on the
symptoms, rather than the solutions because of delays. Some system
structures have unrecognized delays and they can lead wrong
solutions. We should have better awareness about the delays. And we
should also remember that causes and effects are not always close in
time. When we notice a delay, we should try to shorten it as much as
possible.
Small changes in systems can create
big results
This happens in
individual circumstances as well as in systems. Well-focused small
actions aimed for changing the system can create surprisingly big
results. Solving a difficult problem can be a matter of finding the
system structure in which the small change deliver the big and
lasting results. Most of the times, finding these structures is hard.
We need to understand the system and how its parts interact with each
other. Otherwise we will never find the right structures for these
high leverage improvements. We cannot do this without understanding
the system as a whole.
Reacting to the
change in the system is a lot easier than truly understanding its
cause-effect relationships and ways to improve it with small changes.
Reacting to the change can be a bad thing. It may cause small changes
to the system structure creating bigger problems through
self-reinforcing processes. Changing a system structure can have
different consequences in the short run and in the long run.
Different parts of the systems can also have different consequences
caused by the small changes. We also have to think about interactions
of the parts before changing anything in one part of the system.
Most of the results in your life
depend on the quality of your systems
We are mostly
focusing on the different parts of our systems in a particular moment
without thinking about the system as a whole or any long-term
consequences. Our systems can deliver results that exceed the sums of
their parts by a large margin. They can also deliver results that are
not even close to the sums of their parts. People using the same
systems tend to produce similar results. When we do not change our
systems we cannot expect different results. Most of the time, the
results we get are not caused by other people, some particular
conditions, bad luck or some other explanations. The reason for bad
results are the systems or their implementation or our understanding
of them. We should think a lot more about the quality of our systems
or their subsystems. Then we can get better results. We cannot really
improve ourselves without improving our systems.
-TT
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