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1/n John Gall's "Systemantics: The Systems Bible" is a classic book about complex systems. Worth re-reading and revisiting many times.
This thread is a compendium of insights, quotes, and my notes.
I have followed Gall's directive to add my own corollaries.
This thread is a compendium of insights, quotes, and my notes.
I have followed Gall's directive to add my own corollaries.
This book for the most part is about "antics" complex systems play - their misbehavior.
My interest in complex adaptive systems is the other side - how such systems can learn and grow. But we can't get to the positive side by ignoring the traps.
My interest in complex adaptive systems is the other side - how such systems can learn and grow. But we can't get to the positive side by ignoring the traps.
Systems rule!
Systems are here, there, everywhere.
We are systems made of systems.
We are parts that make bigger systems - nature, society...
We love to make new systems, which then rule us.
Systems are here, there, everywhere.
We are systems made of systems.
We are parts that make bigger systems - nature, society...
We love to make new systems, which then rule us.
Watch thy Systems!
“We must learn to live with Systems,
to control them lest they control us.”
#quote from John Gall's "Systemantics: The Systems Bible"
“We must learn to live with Systems,
to control them lest they control us.”
#quote from John Gall's "Systemantics: The Systems Bible"
Unknowns rule!
“There really are unknown and perhaps unknowable aspects of the world around us, and awareness of that fact is a very necessary part of any non-trivial approach to human knowledge."
#quote from John Gall's "Systemantics: The Systems Bible"
“There really are unknown and perhaps unknowable aspects of the world around us, and awareness of that fact is a very necessary part of any non-trivial approach to human knowledge."
#quote from John Gall's "Systemantics: The Systems Bible"
Errors rule!
“... error is our existential situation and that our successes are destined to be temporary and partial ...”
“... error is our existential situation and that our successes are destined to be temporary and partial ...”
Erring/Learning
"Cherish your systems-failures"
"Cherish your bugs"
"humans tend to forget inconvenient facts, and if special notice is not taken of them, they simply fade out of awareness. Therefore, urged Darwin:
CHERISH YOUR EXCEPTIONS”
- John Gall "Systemantics"
#quotes
"Cherish your systems-failures"
"Cherish your bugs"
"humans tend to forget inconvenient facts, and if special notice is not taken of them, they simply fade out of awareness. Therefore, urged Darwin:
CHERISH YOUR EXCEPTIONS”
- John Gall "Systemantics"
#quotes
Failures rule:
“Systems in general work poorly or not at all.”
"Complicated systems seldom exceed five percent efficiency."
“It is a perfectly general feature of Systems not to do what we expected them to do.”
- John Gall "Systemantics"
#quotes
“Systems in general work poorly or not at all.”
"Complicated systems seldom exceed five percent efficiency."
“It is a perfectly general feature of Systems not to do what we expected them to do.”
- John Gall "Systemantics"
#quotes
Le Chatelier's Principle:
The System tends to oppose its own proper function.
"Large systems usually operate in failure mode."
- John Gall "Systemantics"
#quotes
The System tends to oppose its own proper function.
"Large systems usually operate in failure mode."
- John Gall "Systemantics"
#quotes
Coping with the Failures rule:
Systems-students obsess with trying to expect the unexpected from complex systems.
The practice of doing a "premortem" is an excellent hack for trying to expect unexpected systems failures.
Systems-students obsess with trying to expect the unexpected from complex systems.
The practice of doing a "premortem" is an excellent hack for trying to expect unexpected systems failures.
We try to build systems to fulfill our desires.
But once built, systems resist bending to human desires.
For every problem addressed, new problems arise.
Every feature added, adds more bugs.
But once built, systems resist bending to human desires.
For every problem addressed, new problems arise.
Every feature added, adds more bugs.
Systems take over:
"Systems tend to expand to fill the available universe."
"Systems expand, and as they expand, they encroach."
"The system prefers to encroach, that is, to make someone else do the work."
- John Gall "Systemantics"
"Systems tend to expand to fill the available universe."
"Systems expand, and as they expand, they encroach."
"The system prefers to encroach, that is, to make someone else do the work."
- John Gall "Systemantics"
System scale, complexity, and construction matters:
"A large system, produced by expanding the dimensions of a smaller system, does not behave like the smaller system."
"Complex systems exhibit unexpected behavior."
- John Gall "Systemantics"
#quotes
"A large system, produced by expanding the dimensions of a smaller system, does not behave like the smaller system."
"Complex systems exhibit unexpected behavior."
- John Gall "Systemantics"
#quotes
System Cycles:
"Systems tend to malfunction conspicuously just after their magnificent triumph."
"Systems always kick back."
"The old system is now the new problem."
"The army is now fully prepared to fight the previous war."
- John Gall "Systemantics"
#quotes
"Systems tend to malfunction conspicuously just after their magnificent triumph."
"Systems always kick back."
"The old system is now the new problem."
"The army is now fully prepared to fight the previous war."
- John Gall "Systemantics"
#quotes
"A temporary patch will very likely be permanent."
"The ghost of the old system haunts the new."
- John Gall "Systemantics"
#quotes
Corollaries:
Systems, once created, have a life of their own.
Systems, even when killed, persist in after-life.
"The ghost of the old system haunts the new."
- John Gall "Systemantics"
#quotes
Corollaries:
Systems, once created, have a life of their own.
Systems, even when killed, persist in after-life.
It is not what (it says) it is:
"People in systems do not do what the system says they are doing."
- John Gall "Systemantics"
#quotes
People in power (elected or not) who are supposed to be running the government are not governing but are busy trying to stay in power.
"People in systems do not do what the system says they are doing."
- John Gall "Systemantics"
#quotes
People in power (elected or not) who are supposed to be running the government are not governing but are busy trying to stay in power.
Name is most emphatically not the Thing:
It is not what it is said to be,
it is what the system made it to be.
An apple plucked from a tree.
An apple bought from a local farmer's market.
An apple bought from the supermarket.
Three systems,
same name,
different things.
It is not what it is said to be,
it is what the system made it to be.
An apple plucked from a tree.
An apple bought from a local farmer's market.
An apple bought from the supermarket.
Three systems,
same name,
different things.
Fooled by Systems, deceived by Names:
"The system itself does not do what it says it is doing."
- John Gall "Systemantics"
#quotes
"The system itself does not do what it says it is doing."
- John Gall "Systemantics"
#quotes
Fundamental Law of Administrative Working (FLAW)
"If the system says it happened, then it happened."
"A system is no better than its sensory organs."
"To those inside the system, the outside world pales and disappears."
- John Gall "Systemantics"
#quotes
"If the system says it happened, then it happened."
"A system is no better than its sensory organs."
"To those inside the system, the outside world pales and disappears."
- John Gall "Systemantics"
#quotes
To be continued...
Systems Delusion and Delusion Systems:
“Why do we not say you are laboring under a delusion? The answer is: because we share your set of beliefs. We are in your delusion system, and we are both victims of a Systems-delusion.”
- John Gall. “SYSTEMANTICS"
#quote
“Why do we not say you are laboring under a delusion? The answer is: because we share your set of beliefs. We are in your delusion system, and we are both victims of a Systems-delusion.”
- John Gall. “SYSTEMANTICS"
#quote
Systems Delusion:
As part of a large system with a high Coefficient of Fiction, you accept as real what the system tells you.
Delusion System:
A large system with a high Coefficient of Fiction and a strong Positive Feedback spawns a system of delusion that sucks in outsiders.
As part of a large system with a high Coefficient of Fiction, you accept as real what the system tells you.
Delusion System:
A large system with a high Coefficient of Fiction and a strong Positive Feedback spawns a system of delusion that sucks in outsiders.
Examples of systems delusions and delusion systems:
Gangs, cults, authoritarian regimes, narcissistic leaders, ...
Gangs, cults, authoritarian regimes, narcissistic leaders, ...
Systems attract systems-people
“Systems attract and keep those people whose attributes are such as to adapt them to life in that System”
- John Gall. “SYSTEMANTICS"
#quote
“Systems attract and keep those people whose attributes are such as to adapt them to life in that System”
- John Gall. “SYSTEMANTICS"
#quote
