system
Last modified on July 05, 2022

• 2016-ish: really interested in structures of all kinds
  
• 2017-ish: discovered Symbolic Systems at Stanford - felt that it called to me.
  
• Turing Test / Why People Think Computers Can’t: seminal moment for me in thinking about the nature of intelligence (related to What the fuck is “cognition” after all?)
  
  • studying artificial intelligence was an outgrowth of this inspirational moment
    
• 2018-ish: had the idea for Thoughtset – being able to subset my thoughts in various ways
  treating each thought as an “atom” – can collect the atoms in different organizations
  
  • didn’t quite have the technical skills to express it yet.
    
• 2019-ish: got very into vim, keyboard shortcuts, “system config” kind of stuff– crazy how vim keybindings become subconscious after a certain point 🤯
  
• 2020-ish: became aware of roam / org-roam, becoming (more) interested in knowledge graphs, etc.
  
  • interest in knowledge graphs, emacs, systems, all started to intertwine in this COVID era
    
• 2022-ish: meeting Gui, reading Designing Freedom, becoming aware of the societal perspective on systems. or the systems perspective on society?
  
• future:
  
  • integrating the cybernetics / societal systems perspective that Gui has exposed me to into my work. working to create structures that increase individual freedom
    
  • who knows…?
    

Managers are not confronted with problems that are independent of each other , but with dynamic situations that consist of complex systems of changing problems that interact with each other . I call such situations messes . … Managers do not solve problems , they manage messes .

So , what is a system ? A system is a set of things — people , cells , molecules , or whatever — interconnected in such a way that they produce their own pattern of behavior over time . The system may be buffeted , constricted , triggered , or driven by outside forces . But the system’s response to these forces is characteristic of itself , and that response is seldom simple in the real world .

Modern systems theory , bound up with computers and equations , hides the fact that it traffics in truths known at some level by everyone . It is often possible , therefore , to make a direct translation from systems jargon to traditional wisdom .

are intrinsically systems problems — undesirable behaviors characteristic of the system structures that produce them . They will yield only as we reclaim our intuition , stop casting blame , see the system as the source of its own problems , and find the courage and wisdom to restructure it .

I don’t think the systems way of seeing is better than the reductionist way of thinking . I think it’s complementary , and therefore revealing . You can see some things through the lens of the human eye , other things through the lens of a microscope , others through the lens of a telescope , and still others through the lens of systems theory . Everything seen through each kind of lens is actually there . Each way of seeing allows our knowledge of the wondrous world in which we live to become a little more complete .

a simple lesson but one that we often ignore : The behavior of a system cannot be known just by knowing the elements of which the system is made .

A system * is an interconnected set of elements that is coherently organized in a way that achieves something . If you look at that definition closely for a minute , you can see that a system must consist of three kinds of things : elements , interconnections , and a function or purpose .

Some people say that an old city neighborhood where people know each other and communicate regularly is a social system , and that a new apartment block full of strangers is not — not until new relationships arise and a system forms .

It’s easier to learn about a system’s elements than about its interconnections .

Information holds systems together and plays a great role in determining how they operate .

If information - based relationships are hard to see , functions or purposes are even harder . A system’s function or purpose is not necessarily spoken , written , or expressed explicitly , except through the operation of the system . The best way to deduce the system’s purpose is to watch for a while to see how the system behaves .

An important function of almost every system is to ensure its own perpetuation .

• 2016-ish: really interested in structures of all kinds
  
• 2017-ish: discovered Symbolic Systems at Stanford - felt that it called to me.
  
• Turing Test / Why People Think Computers Can’t: seminal moment for me in thinking about the nature of intelligence (related to What the fuck is “cognition” after all?)
  
  • studying artificial intelligence was an outgrowth of this inspirational moment
    
• 2018-ish: had the idea for Thoughtset – being able to subset my thoughts in various ways
  treating each thought as an “atom” – can collect the atoms in different organizations
  
  • didn’t quite have the technical skills to express it yet.
    
• 2019-ish: got very into vim, keyboard shortcuts, “system config” kind of stuff– crazy how vim keybindings become subconscious after a certain point 🤯
  
• 2020-ish: became aware of roam / org-roam, becoming (more) interested in knowledge graphs, etc.
  
  • interest in knowledge graphs, emacs, systems, all started to intertwine in this COVID era
    
• 2022-ish: meeting Gui, reading Designing Freedom, becoming aware of the societal perspective on systems. or the systems perspective on society?
  
• future:
  
  • integrating the cybernetics / societal systems perspective that Gui has exposed me to into my work. working to create structures that increase individual freedom
    
  • who knows…?
    

Managers are not confronted with problems that are independent of each other , but with dynamic situations that consist of complex systems of changing problems that interact with each other . I call such situations messes . … Managers do not solve problems , they manage messes .

So , what is a system ? A system is a set of things — people , cells , molecules , or whatever — interconnected in such a way that they produce their own pattern of behavior over time . The system may be buffeted , constricted , triggered , or driven by outside forces . But the system’s response to these forces is characteristic of itself , and that response is seldom simple in the real world .

Modern systems theory , bound up with computers and equations , hides the fact that it traffics in truths known at some level by everyone . It is often possible , therefore , to make a direct translation from systems jargon to traditional wisdom .

are intrinsically systems problems — undesirable behaviors characteristic of the system structures that produce them . They will yield only as we reclaim our intuition , stop casting blame , see the system as the source of its own problems , and find the courage and wisdom to restructure it .

I don’t think the systems way of seeing is better than the reductionist way of thinking . I think it’s complementary , and therefore revealing . You can see some things through the lens of the human eye , other things through the lens of a microscope , others through the lens of a telescope , and still others through the lens of systems theory . Everything seen through each kind of lens is actually there . Each way of seeing allows our knowledge of the wondrous world in which we live to become a little more complete .

a simple lesson but one that we often ignore : The behavior of a system cannot be known just by knowing the elements of which the system is made .

A system * is an interconnected set of elements that is coherently organized in a way that achieves something . If you look at that definition closely for a minute , you can see that a system must consist of three kinds of things : elements , interconnections , and a function or purpose .

Some people say that an old city neighborhood where people know each other and communicate regularly is a social system , and that a new apartment block full of strangers is not — not until new relationships arise and a system forms .

It’s easier to learn about a system’s elements than about its interconnections .

Information holds systems together and plays a great role in determining how they operate .

If information - based relationships are hard to see , functions or purposes are even harder . A system’s function or purpose is not necessarily spoken , written , or expressed explicitly , except through the operation of the system . The best way to deduce the system’s purpose is to watch for a while to see how the system behaves .

An important function of almost every system is to ensure its own perpetuation .