Citation (IEEE): D. H. Meadows, Thinking in Systems: A Primer. White River Junction, VT, USA: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2008.
What it argues
An accessible primer, published posthumously, on how systems work. Part one explains stocks, flows, feedback loops, delays, resilience, self-organization and hierarchy, and why systems surprise us. Part two describes recurring “system traps” and their ways out, and ranks the places to intervene in a system from weak (parameters) to powerful (rules, goals and paradigms). Meadows closes with guidelines for living in a world of systems.