Subject: Bored students: Another try at focusing the discussion

Posted by Kathy Arizmendi on 12/31/2010
In Reply To:Bored students: Another try at focusing the discussion Posted by Jay Forrester on 12/30/2010

Message:

It seems to me that the starting place is to clearly identify all the systems and subsystems that are interacting in the problem...to list their structures, how they interact, and explore the validity of the assumptions that underlie and inform them. And not to forget the people implementing the system are also a system based on assumptions, interacting with other systems. A model will function only as well as the people who implement it on all levels are able to function. How about doing an analysis of what that requires?

Looking for similarities and differences between what happened spontaneously in the thread, and what is now being asked for...Some of this was brought up in the thread. It just wasn't labelled with formal system vocabulary and syntax. Language and communication is another of those interconnected systems, is it not? And the thread wasn't modeled by a computer. Perhaps exploring the role of artificial thinking systems in creative thinking would be valuable. What other differences were there?

Differences in povs and approaches can lead to new insights, given the right conditions.