Ask HN: Any recommended resources to develop system thinking?

The answer below assumes the following:

- You are talking about the application of general systems theory. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_theory

- You would like to learn to apply 'systems thinking' principals and analysis in many domains or to new problems

- You would like to learn to model systems

- It is also important to note in many domains there are specific branches of systems theory that may be more applicable. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_types_of_systems_theor...

- You could spend an entire lifetime learning in this field as many have done.

Types of systems:

Systems can be broken down by multiple dimensions:

- Complex

- simple

- unitary

- pluralist

- coercive

Systems thinking approaches:

- Hard systems thinking

- Systems dynamics

- Cybernetics

- Complexity Theory

- Soft Systems

- Emancipatory systems thinking

- Postmodern systems thinking

Learning More about Systems Thinking:

- A great website is the systems thinker, that covers quite a bit of topics. The articles are actually archives of a newsletter called "The systems thinker" https://thesystemsthinker.com/

- To get an overview of various approaches to systems thinking from an organizational perspective:

Systems Thinking: Creative Holism for Managers by Michael C. Jackson. https://www.amazon.com/Systems-Thinking-Creative-Holism-Mana...

- For general systems theory: An Introduction to General Systems Thinking by Gerald M. Weinberg https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-General-Systems-Thinking...

- For systems thinking and the learning organization:

The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization by Peter Senge https://www.amazon.com/Fifth-Discipline-Practice-Learning-Or...

- There is a great course that covers soft systems methodology, specifically to solve social problems: https://www.plusacumen.org/courses/systems-practice

- Habits of a systems thinker: https://www.watersfoundation.org/systems-thinking-tools-and-...

- Systems thinking resources: http://donellameadows.org/systems-thinking-resources/

* Update added additional resources.

The work of John Holland, Melanie Mitchell, Geoffrey West, most anyone at the Sante Fe Institute.

Honestly, play a bunch of videogames and pay attention to the mechanics and optimal play strategies. They're doing a fantastic job of giving even young children an extremely deep intuitive understanding of system thinking concepts. Stay away from twitchy multiplayer competition-based games, though, those teach nothing.

Yes. So it is systems theory applied in multiple domains, can be used as a framework to understand or model the world around you.

See my other posts.

It is a way of thinking about the world, and contrasts with traditional linear thinking. It is where interaction and interrelationships are understood to drive outcomes and behaviours of the system under study.

As mentioned it is a massive field.

If you are interested in systems theory, I would recommend Ross Ashby's Introduction to Cybernetics. It's a short book and free to download: https://archive.org/details/introductiontocy00ashb

Much of the pioneering work in systems theory was done in the 1930-40's by different (but related) groups of academics in the fields of Systems Theory, Cybernetics, as well as Operational Research. Bertalanffy and Wienberg are progenitors of those fields, but I would stick to people like Ashby, who are much better writers. The work they produced is profound and laid the foundation for much of our modern academic disciplines and industrial practices.

There are a lot of fascinating people and fascinating work that came out of those academic groups during that period. They are too many to list, but I would give William Grey Walter and his robotic tortoise's as an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLULRlmXkKo

This might be beyond the scope of what you want, but I would also heartily recommend Carver Mead's Analog VSLI and Neural Systems: https://www.amazon.com/Analog-VLSI-Neural-Systems-Carver/dp/...