Thinking in Systems

Stocks and flows

  1. Bathtub (p. 19)
    2.

Balancing feedback loops

  1. Bathtub Game 1
    2.
  2. Bathtub Game 2
    3.
  3. Coffee warming (p. 29)
    4.
  4. Coffee cooling (p. 29)
    5.

Reinforcing feedback loops

  1. Savings with interest (p. 31)
    2.
  2. Nursing shortage
    3.

Cooperating feedback loops

  1. Coffee warming and cooling (p. 29)
    2.

Competing feedback loops

  1. Thermostat (p. 36)
    2.
  2. Population (p. 42)
    3.
  3. Nursing staff
    4.
  4. Concentration of wealth
    5.

Delays and oscillations

  1. Bathtub Game 3
    2.
  2. Business inventory (p. 51)
    3.
  3. Predator and prey
    4.

Limits to growth

  1. Oil economy (p. 58)
    2.
  2. Fishing economy (p. 66)
    3.

Resilience and stability

  1. Coffee warming or cooling
    2.
  2. Balancing feedback with a delay
    3.
  3. Wealth
    4.
  4. Loss of resilience
    5.

Self-organization

  1. Flock
    2.
  2. Pattern formation
    3.

System traps

  1. War on drugs (Policy resistance)
    2.
  2. Wealth (Success to the successful)
    3.
  3. Levelling the playing field
    4.

By Noah Brender (Dawson College).
Based on Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2008).