A very interesting book that is about more than just systems analysis. As an introduction to the subject it has a little bit of math, a little bit of engineering, and quite a bit of philosophy.
The book gives constructive advice on analyzing situations and pulling apart complex systems and getting at what makes them work. The advice is aimed at non-technical readers (like me!) so there was a lot I could take away from this book.
I can see that there must be a lot of interest in this topic in the field of economics – people analyzing why Company A is getting ahead while Company B might not be worth investing in. The economics part of the book was the least interesting to me, maybe it just went a little too deep and I’m more comfortable in the kiddie pool.
I also thought that considering the book was written way back in 2003 it contains a lot of insight that is applicable to the current political situation in the USA and around the world. That speaks to how fundamental the author’s ideas are. She writes with a lot of humility too – the systems analyst must be content with knowing that they can never know everything about a system, they can never compute every variable, they can always be surprised by unexpected events to throw the whole thing off kilter. But that isn’t a reason not to make the effort.
Next I am reading Some Kind of Hero by Ajay Chowdhury and Matthew Field.
