Thinking in Systems: Difference between revisions

{{Quote|A '''stock''' is the foundation of any system. Stocks are the elements in the system that you can see, feel, count, or measure at any given time. A system stock is just what it sounds like: a store, a quantity, an accumulation of material or information that has built up over time. It may be the water in a bathtub, a population, the books in a bookstore, the wood in a tree, the money in the bank, your own self-confidence. A stock does not have to be physical. Your reserve of goodwill for others or your supply of hope that the world can be better are both stocks.

:—{{br|Thinking in Systems}} by {{author|Donella H. Meadows}}.}}

For a short book this one is packed with insight, covering a number of  “old chestnut” system problems: the tragedy of the commons, success to the successful, rule arbitrage and others and prescribing as it does basically liberal approach — small “l” liberal, that is — people are going to do what they do, and banning them isn’t going to work: better to  it is pushing at an open door for this reviewer.