“Places to Intervene in a System” is the name of a paper written in 1999 by Donella Meadows of the Sustainability Institute.
Maybe it’s because I was a computer programmer/systems analyst for 25 years, but this is one of the best things I’ve read. When I read it, it was like watching someone pick up a tool you’d used many times and then suddenly seeing them do incredible virtuosa things with it. The clarity of her thought processes is amazing, to say the least.
Systems are everywhere around us. It’s probably not too strong to say that they comprise everything significant in this physical world. Once you’ve read Donella, you’ll probably realize, as I did, how poorly we understand how to intereact with these essential components of our world. And, you may see as well how that bears on the terrible mess humanity is geting itself into vis-a-vis the environment at this point in history.
Read and enjoy: ➡ (this requires a PDF reader)