The hottest Systems Thinking Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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The Hagakure #87: One Year In

The Hagakure • 92 implied HN points • 12 Jun 25
💼 Business Leadership Management Startup Product Development Systems Thinking
  1. It's important to build a connected system for your team that everyone understands and trusts. This helps improve productivity and makes sure everyone knows their role and responsibilities.
  2. Staying honest and present with your team is key. Being approachable and authentic can help build strong relationships, especially during tough times.
  3. Embracing change quickly is vital, especially when new technologies emerge. Don't hesitate to adapt your strategy and structure to meet new challenges head-on.

TBM 338: 4 Core Product OS Design Competencies

The Beautiful Mess • 647 implied HN points • 04 Feb 25
💼 Business Operations Leadership Product Design Systems Thinking Domain Knowledge
  1. Good leadership is key for a product team's success. Leaders need to support and influence their teams effectively, helping them navigate challenges without adding to their stress.
  2. Having the right experience matters. People should understand the product work deeply, as it helps them make better decisions and recognize what needs to be automated or done manually.
  3. Being skilled in operations and systems thinking is important. This means knowing how to manage workflows, map needs, and ensure that the right tools are in place for an efficient process.

TBM 333: Lean Graph Theory

The Beautiful Mess • 476 implied HN points • 14 Jan 25
💼 Business Product Development Systems Thinking Team Dynamics
  1. Lean principles are useful for all types of organizations but need to be applied with context in mind. It's important to adapt these ideas rather than stick to a strict method.
  2. Different models like path graphs, directed acyclic graphs, and network graphs help us understand how organizations function. Each model serves a unique purpose, and they often overlap.
  3. Most companies need to balance different approaches based on their growth and challenges. Moving towards more network-oriented and directed models can help improve collaboration and effectiveness.

The Leverage Points in Engineering Ecosystems

peoplefirstengineering • 50 implied HN points • 18 Dec 24
🕹 Technology Systems Thinking Software Engineering Complexity Theory Change Management Organizational Design
  1. Complex systems, like software teams, are made up of many parts that interact with each other and change over time. Understanding these interactions can help improve how we manage and work within these systems.
  2. Donella Meadows' framework shows that not all changes in a system will have the same impact. Some changes, like adjusting goals or encouraging new mindsets, can lead to much bigger improvements than simply tweaking numbers or rules.
  3. To create a successful and adaptable environment, it's important to give teams the freedom to self-organize, share information openly, and align their goals with the overall mission of the organization.

Unicorn Projects

Polymathic Being • 65 implied HN points • 01 Dec 24
💼 Business Innovation Project management Process Optimization Systems Thinking Best Practices
  1. Many teams believe their projects are special or unique, but this mindset can lead to mistakes because they ignore proven methods that could help them succeed.
  2. Looking for what’s common between projects instead of focusing on differences can help teams use best practices more effectively, leading to better outcomes.
  3. True innovation happens when teams recognize common problems and find areas that actually need new solutions, rather than chasing after the idea of uniqueness.
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SwirlAI Table of Contents

SwirlAI Newsletter • 432 implied HN points • 28 Jun 23
🕹 Technology Data Engineering MLOps System Design Systems Thinking
  1. The newsletter provides a Table of Contents with more than 90 topics, making it easier to find the content of interest.
  2. Topics covered include Data Engineering fundamentals, Spark architecture, Kafka use cases, MLOps deployment processes, System Design examples, and more.
  3. If interested, it's recommended to support the author's work by subscribing and sharing the content.

systems *doing* and complexity *doing*

The Beautiful Mess • 79 implied HN points • 14 Nov 24
💼 Business Systems Thinking Complexity Theory Collaboration Organizational Culture Decision-making
  1. Bringing different people together in a fun way can help create new connections and ideas. It's important for everyone to share their unique perspectives.
  2. Sometimes it's better to wait and see what happens instead of jumping into action right away. This allows space for good ideas to emerge naturally.
  3. You can simplify complex issues to help understand them, but always remember to keep the messy details nearby so you don't lose important context.

Why Techno-Optimism Alone Fails

Anima Mundi • 20 implied HN points • 14 Feb 25
🕹 Technology Innovation Society Sustainability Capitalism Systems Thinking
  1. Techno-optimism believes technology alone can solve big problems, but real solutions need deep changes in how we think about society and progress. Simply having more tech doesn't guarantee a better future.
  2. Silicon Valley often looks for quick fixes to complicated issues, but many problems require a smarter, more thoughtful approach rather than just engineering solutions and fast growth.
  3. Technology should aim to help everyone, not just the wealthy. We need a fair system that shares resources and gives everyone access to the tools they need for a better life.

Leverage Points for solving complex problems

Turnaround • 277 implied HN points • 01 Aug 22
💼 Business Management Systems Thinking Complexity Theory Problem Solving Product Management
  1. Complex problems require moving away from linear thinking and embracing complexity thinking that involves understanding interconnections and dependencies.
  2. Leverage points in a system are areas where small changes can cause significant overall impact. These include adjusting parameters, dealing with stock buffers, considering system structures, managing feedback loops, controlling information flows, setting incentives and rules, enabling self-organization, and aligning with system goals and paradigms.
  3. Differentiating between complicated and complex systems is crucial in problem-solving. In complex interconnected systems, problem statements often fall into categories such as coupled, causal, or standalone.

How to break the cycle of firefighting and build engineering excellence

The Incrementalist • 2 implied HN points • 01 Jan 25
💼 Business Management Operations Leadership Systems Thinking Team development
  1. Focus on identifying patterns in recurring problems so you can address the underlying issues, not just the symptoms. This can save time and resources in the long run.
  2. Engage your team in analyzing and understanding events to develop better strategies. Involving everyone ensures a shared understanding and ownership of solutions.
  3. Create processes and structures that promote proactive thinking and continuous improvement. This helps teams work more effectively and reduces the chaos of constantly putting out fires.

Exegesis: A Powerful Analytical Tool

Polymathic Being • 73 implied HN points • 10 Sep 23
⛪ Faith & Spirituality Religion Psychology Interpretation Analysis Systems Thinking
  1. Exegesis is a powerful analytical tool that helps shift perspective by digging deeper into topics.
  2. It contrasts with eisegesis, which involves reading into situations based on biases and interpretations.
  3. Exegesis can be applied to various subjects to challenge assumptions, promote critical thinking, and gain a better understanding of historical and contemporary contexts.

Stop Aiming at the Wrong Targets

Polymathic Being • 54 implied HN points • 12 Nov 23
🚌 Education Military Systems Thinking Leadership Technology Business
  1. In war, success requires looking at targets in front of you and those over the horizon.
  2. In technology and business, it's important to focus not just on immediate targets, but also on targets further away.
  3. Systems thinking involves engaging deeply across domains to find solutions for complex problems, even those that are not immediately visible.

The Long Game | LSW#47

The Leading Sapiens Weekly • 30 implied HN points • 15 Mar 24
🚌 Education Learning Strategies Systems Thinking Professional development
  1. Thinking long-term is a challenge because we're not naturally wired for it. Compounding gains show significant results on a long timeline, requiring consistency and patience.
  2. Maintaining consistency of effort involves focusing on simple patterns, understanding the mundane, and adopting an input-focused mindset.
  3. Systems thinking helps uncover the underlying structures that drive actions, emphasizing the importance of proactive, future-oriented actions over reactive firefighting.

Mapping the analogy of institutions as organisms (1)

Space chimp life • 1 HN point • 23 Jul 24
📖 Philosophy Metaphysics Epistemology Systems Thinking
  1. Institutions can act like living organisms, but they don't fit neatly into that analogy because humans can belong to multiple institutions and change roles often. This shows that people aren't static and can adapt in many ways.
  2. The way institutions operate can be better understood through concepts from thermodynamics and statistics. This means they can change how they function based on rules and roles assigned to their members, similar to how particles behave in biology.
  3. Institutions perceive the world through their policies and data, rather than physical objects alone. What they 'see' influences their actions and decisions, just like biological organisms react to their environment based on internal processes.

Systems Distributed '24

Eventually Consistent • 1 HN point • 02 Jul 24
🕹 Technology Software Engineering Software Testing Systems Thinking
  1. Systems engineering is more than programming - it's about understanding complex systems and critical thinking. Engineers with systems thinking skills are becoming increasingly valuable in the industry.
  2. Developing new software abstractions can enhance developer experience and lead to concrete technological innovations. It's important to focus on improving software design patterns and solving problems on the right layers of the stack.
  3. Ensuring safe and correct software remains a significant challenge in building distributed systems. Innovative approaches to testing, such as deterministic hypervisors and model checking techniques, are crucial for uncovering hidden bugs and enhancing productivity.

#15: Maintenance by design

The Uncertainty Mindset (soon to become tbd) • 119 implied HN points • 12 Feb 20
💼 Business Organizational Design Systems Thinking Strategic Planning Change Management
  1. Maintenance isn't just about fixing broken things. It can also mean improving what already exists and ensuring everything runs smoothly.
  2. Design systems to be flexible and aware of changes in their environment. This helps them adapt quickly without breaking down.
  3. Having a diverse setup, like different types of wheat in a field, makes systems more stable and less fragile. They can adjust better to unexpected challenges.

Institutions as Forms of Life

Space chimp life • 0 implied HN points • 08 Jan 24
📖 Philosophy AI Ethics Human behavior Systems Thinking Environmental Concerns
  1. Institutions are not just groups of people; their behavior is shaped by their structures and incentives. This means they can act in ways that don't always reflect what individuals want, like ignoring climate change.
  2. An institution can exist without humans entirely; in the future, AI might take over all roles in institutions without changing their function. This shows that institutions operate like living things, independent of their human creators.
  3. To improve institutions, we need to help them adjust their decisions based on long-term effects instead of short-term profits. Providing better communication and information from people can help institutions make smarter choices.

Book Review: "Thinking in Systems: A Primer" by Donella H. Meadows 4/5

Poczwardowski Notes • 0 implied HN points • 17 Aug 21
🔬 Science Systems Thinking Environment Interconnectedness
  1. The book provides a comprehensive introduction to system thinking, starting with basic examples and progressing to more complex ones.
  2. Using system thinking lenses to view the world can be a valuable tool in understanding interconnected systems and forces at play.
  3. Perceiving the world as a network of interconnected systems is highlighted as an essential perspective, particularly by environmental scientist Donella Meadows, emphasizing the importance of understanding nature's complex connections.

Systems Thinking, Objects and Networks

Divergent Futures • 0 implied HN points • 08 Oct 23
🌞 Climate & Environment Sustainability Systems Thinking Urban planning Environmental Policy
  1. Complex problems like climate change need complex thinking. We can't just look at individual parts; we must see the whole system and how it all connects.
  2. When people want to change things but can't, it's often because of poor communication and coordination between different groups. Both developers and planners might have good intentions, but they need to work together to make real progress.
  3. To really solve problems, we should focus on the bigger picture and the relationships around the issue. By understanding the system we are in, we can find better ways to create meaningful change.

Map Memorizers or Explorers: Hiring Well Needs Systems Thinking

resonantbrain • 0 implied HN points • 14 Dec 23
💼 Business Hiring Systems Thinking Education Recruiting Candidates
  1. Job interviews and the education system share similar flaws by focusing on standardized assessments, ignoring the complexity and interconnectedness of real-world systems.
  2. Hiring processes should aim to select explorers rather than map memorizers, by incorporating real-world challenges and assessing comprehension and creativity.
  3. A multi-dimensional assessment approach in hiring, rather than a single numerical rating, helps identify rough diamonds and fosters meaningful connections within the company.