*Everything* is connected. If we want to change the future, we have to stop solving problems in isolation and start changing the patterns that create them.
I wholeheartedly agree! We need to design a new system! This is the type of design I wanted to go to school for but this degree doesn’t exist yet. Don Norman has written a white paper on the topic about how design schools need to evolve. He has also written a book called Design for a Better World! I recommend that and Donella Meadows’ book Thinking in Systems. She has a great website as well!
This piece read to me as a gently fierce warning! I am in school currently and the idea of complex systems across all fields of study really stands out to me, and I really like the idea of 'systems doing' as you put it.
One step in the right direction would be teaching meta structures, the underlying relationships. Most often we see the world as sets of objects functioning according to linear logic, A causes B. That is actually almost never the case. So right from the start our model is an illusion, and definitely does not prepare us for the infinite set of relationships that construct our world and all of life.
So when an environmentalist identifies something destructive that actually started 20 years ago, it does not compute. Worse if it interferes with profit.
Something I do with my students: “What’s that tall green thing outside the window?“. Answer a “tree”.
No, “tree” is a word we use to name an object.
A tree is a set of amazing relationships: water, photosynthesis, carbon dioxide, bark, leaves, squirrels, birds, pollinators, on and on…
And maybe they all need to be present so we can say “tree”.
Children are natural systems thinkers. Curiosity driven meta thinkers: “Where did that come from?”. “Oh, ok, then where did that come from?…
We need education to start where kids live, before the naming of objects takes over.
I wholeheartedly agree! We need to design a new system! This is the type of design I wanted to go to school for but this degree doesn’t exist yet. Don Norman has written a white paper on the topic about how design schools need to evolve. He has also written a book called Design for a Better World! I recommend that and Donella Meadows’ book Thinking in Systems. She has a great website as well!
Fantastic list of resources, thanks for sharing 🙏
This piece read to me as a gently fierce warning! I am in school currently and the idea of complex systems across all fields of study really stands out to me, and I really like the idea of 'systems doing' as you put it.
My first (and only so far) substack essay was also on a very similar line of thought: https://open.substack.com/pub/aashafull/p/breaking-up-with-the-earth?r=5bc0wu&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
Thank you.
Kids & Trees
One step in the right direction would be teaching meta structures, the underlying relationships. Most often we see the world as sets of objects functioning according to linear logic, A causes B. That is actually almost never the case. So right from the start our model is an illusion, and definitely does not prepare us for the infinite set of relationships that construct our world and all of life.
So when an environmentalist identifies something destructive that actually started 20 years ago, it does not compute. Worse if it interferes with profit.
Something I do with my students: “What’s that tall green thing outside the window?“. Answer a “tree”.
No, “tree” is a word we use to name an object.
A tree is a set of amazing relationships: water, photosynthesis, carbon dioxide, bark, leaves, squirrels, birds, pollinators, on and on…
And maybe they all need to be present so we can say “tree”.
Children are natural systems thinkers. Curiosity driven meta thinkers: “Where did that come from?”. “Oh, ok, then where did that come from?…
We need education to start where kids live, before the naming of objects takes over.
🙏 Amen 🙏 🙌 👏 ❤️ ✨️ 😌
Amen