The Weekly Probe No. 1

A weekly systems-thinking roundup.

Welcome to The Weekly Probe: a list of all the interesting things I’ve consumed over the past week related to systems thinking. The content serves as supplemental material to help those wishing to be better systems thinking students. The information presented here are not solutions in and of themselves but help facilitate better tools when creating or extending future systems.

IN ORDER TO SUCCEED IT IS NECESSARY TO KNOW HOW TO AVOID THE MOST LIKELY WAYS TO FAIL.

Systemantics

Positive feedback loops are dangerous because they cover up blindspots within the system until they are exposed. A system that ignores feedback has already begun the process of terminal instability.

-Cherish Your Bugs

Explore Your Curiosity

THE CHECKLIST MANIFESTO: CHAPTER 8. THE HERO IN THE AGE OF CHECKLISTS

Atul Gawande is one of the best systems-thinkers of our time. This book happens to be one of Jack Dorsey’s favorites. Atul advocates checklist systems to take systematic approaches to anything routine. However, he isn’t advocating that whoever follows a checklist needs to do precisely as it says. Creativity is still a big part of the process, but he argues that we can negate the most common errors by following a checklist. A profound moment in the book was when Atul described how surgery is performed worldwide. Interestingly, the tools are pretty standard throughout the world. What differs and why the US and Europe have fewer surgical fatalities is the operating room checklists they have mandated.

LEX FRIDMAN: NEAL STEPHENSON

This entire podcast is worth listening to, but the systems portion to focus on is from 1:11:00 - 1:15:00.

Lex and Neal talk about the consequences of systems. Neal talks about the result of DDT, for example, which didn’t consider all of the adverse side effects we knew about before we used it in our agricultural practices. Everything we do has consequences, and we should be defensive about the new systems we create rather than convincing ourselves that new systems will solve all of our problems.

PIRATE WIRES MIKE SOLANA: CHRIS BEST CEO SUBSTACK INTERVIEW

Mike and Chris discuss the outcome of the ad-driven world we live in. The content that media agencies and news outlets create is dictated by whether it will drive clicks and attention, not because it is valuable content. But this ad-driven system has created so much built-up negativity against the media and has also turned us against ourselves. It is refreshing to hear that Chris is deeply concerned about this problem and Substack’s systematic approach to solving it.

CRAIG GROESCHEL LEADERSHIP PODCAST

Beginning from 7:30

As we turn the page on a new year and people are thinking about their goals, it is essential to remind ourselves that our systems determine whether we achieve those goals. Craig also talks about feedback which was a crucial teaching of the blog post this past week. People quit their goals because they don’t see results fast enough. But results are finicky. As I demonstrated in the blog, even though a system works today doesn’t mean that it will tomorrow. What is much more important is the day-to-day inner workings of the system. Our daily habits coerce the system to its result.

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THE FUTURE IS NO MORE PREDICTABLE NOW THAN IT WAS IN THE PAST, BUT YOU CAN AT LEAST TAKE NOTE OF TRENDS.

-KYLE