Thinking in Systems: A Primer

Thinking In Systems: A Primer by Donella Meadows My 17 year old son bought it for me for my birthday. I've been enjoying it a lot. I do in fact like thinking in systems and learning more about it, and reading it in a more generalized fashion than I tend to in the computer science world has provided a refreshing perspective. It's all very approachable, nothing very complex, but gives names and discreet patterns to things I intuitively understood but previously wouldn't articulate easily. Definitely one of my favourite gifts in a long time. Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang I read bits of this to my wife at night occasionally. One of the first trips we went on together was camping on a little island, and I had Kafka on the Shore (Haruki Murakami) with me which I suggested I read to her in the evening. She really liked it and I've done it since. I wish I did it more often. Anyway, Stories of Your Life and Others is a wonderful collection. I've read it a few times, not always completely, and I enjoy it. Story of your life is the standout. It's what the movie Arrival is based on, which I consider one of the best scifi movies of all time. It's a beautiful story.…

Fiction: Victory City- new Salman Rushdie book. Great retelling of the history of one of the great medieval South Indian kingdoms. Not his best, but his writing is still top notch. Sea of Tranquility- speculative fiction from Emily St. John Mandel (of Station Eleven fame). It's a series of interconnected stories spanning centuries from the near past to the near future. Beautifully written. Read when I was down with COVID earlier this year and it invaded my dreams (in a good way). Short and easy read. Giovanni's Room- story of an American expat in Paris caught between his love for a man and his duty to his girlfriend. This is the first James Baldwin book I have read but will definitely check out more of his work in 2024. Theory of Bastards- speculative fiction by Audrey Schulmann. Literary sci-fi similar to Station Eleven. It's about a woman researching primate behavior set in the near future where the earth is ravaged by the effects of climate change. Very well researched, beautifully written and nothing like I have ever read before. This won the 2019 Philip K Dick Award.…

- Sapiens - Thinking in Systems

Going to be reading: - Staff Engineer - Thinking in Systems: a Primer - Team Topologies And for fiction: - The Master and Margarita Might re-read peopleware again as well.

+1 I just recently read this book and i was met with gem after gem. Also made me start looking at the world in terms of feedback loops, is it a balancing, goal-seeking or reinforcing feedback loop? How tight are these feedback loops? etc. Definitely a must read!

+1 on Donella Meadows. I've recommended her work here a few times. I've always had an affinity for perceiving systems, but was pretty bad at expressing my thoughts. Donella's work was fantastic for providing definition to my thought patterns and improving the way I articulate and express myself.

Thinking in Systems: A Primer by Donella Meadows Once you start looking for positive and negative feedback loops in the world around you, it's hard to stop. In particular, Meadow's book is great because it also goes beyond +/- loops in isolation, and shows more complicated patterns, such as eroding goal patterns and traps that often cause public policy interventions to fail.

Thinking in Systems: A Primer by Donella H. Meadows https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1603580557/ I read it once a year. It changed how i think about everything. My career is based on this book. My interaction with people and groups of people is based on this book.

1. La peste (Albert Camus) - entertaining if you're into French existentialism 2. Linked (Barabasi) - insightful and useful to understand that most phenomenon we see in real life follow a power law and what that means 3. Leonardo da Vinci (Walter Isaacson) - surprising how little of da Vinci's real personality is reflected in his modern image 4. Matrix computations – third edition (Gene Golub, Charles van Loan) - good read if you're into linear algebra 5. Giving effective feedback (Harvard business review) - useful for getting an understanding on how to handle human interaction 6. The old man and the sea (Ernest Hemingway) - enjoyed it a lot, a reflection of Hemingway's romantic spirit. Also, a quick read. 7. Screwjack (Hunter S. Thompson) - didn't resonate with me although I am a fan of existentialism 8. Sun and steel (Yukio Mishima) - raw and intimate. before reading this book I'd recommend reading up on Mishima's life 9. Stranger than fiction (Chuck Palahniuck) - somewhat entertaining, more so because it served as a glimpse into Palahniuck's creative process…

- The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins - Godel Escher Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter - Language, Truth, and Logic by A. J. Ayer - Thinking in Systems: A Primer by Donella Meadows Books that serve as investment philosophy guides for those who've developed a habit of saving money but are looking for the "next step" in building more wealth. From the mind of one of the greatest investors of all time: - The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham (get the annotated version with an epilogue written by Warren Buffett!) - The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America A book that discusses what matters most in your life from a resource-allocation, measurable results standpoint (family, etc.): - How Will You Measure Your Life by Clayton Christensen A book I read 10 years ago that forever changed the way I manage productivity and organization both at work and in my personal life: - Getting Things Done by David Allen Books that show that our universe is just as crazy, if not crazier, than science fiction: - Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy - Quantum Chance: Nonlocality, Teleportation and Other Quantum Marvels…

Thinking in Systems: A Primer https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Systems-Donella-H-Meadows/dp... (https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Systems-Donella-H-Meadows/dp/1603580557)

Donella* Meadows is the author of #3 Great primer for folks unfamiliar with systems engineering.

Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman How I raised myself from failure to success in selling, Frank Bettger Thinking in Systems: A Primer, Daniela Meadows Most important thing is to get up and start doing stuff, understand how you personally f$$k things up and reap benifits of compound interest in personal development. I think these three bookshave a lot of information that is usable in any career or path one might choose.

Non-technical but some great concepts which can be adapted to programming: Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows The Checklist Manifesto by Athul Gawande