Thinking in Systems

A Primer

By: Donella H. Meadows

Narrated by: Tia Rider Sorensen

In the years following her role as the lead author of the international best seller, Limits to Growth - the first book to show the consequences of unchecked growth on a finite planet - Donella Meadows remained a pioneer of environmental and social analysis until her untimely death in 2001.

Thinking in Systems is a concise and crucial book offering insight for problem-solving on scales ranging from the personal to the global. Edited by the Sustainability Institute's Diana Wright, this essential primer brings systems thinking out of the realm of computers and equations and into the tangible world, showing listeners how to develop the systems-thinking skills that thought leaders across the globe consider critical for 21st-century life.

Some of the biggest problems facing the world - war, hunger, poverty, and environmental degradation - are essentially system failures. They cannot be solved by fixing one piece in isolation from the others, because even seemingly minor details have enormous power to undermine the best efforts of too-narrow thinking.

While listeners will learn the conceptual tools and methods of systems thinking, the heart of the book is grander than methodology. Donella Meadows was known as much for nurturing positive outcomes as she was for delving into the science behind global dilemmas. She reminds listeners to pay attention to what is important, not just what is quantifiable, to stay humble, and to stay a learner.

In a world growing ever more complicated, crowded, and interdependent, Thinking in Systems helps listeners avoid confusion and helplessness, the first step toward finding proactive and effective solutions.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2008 Sustainability Institute (P)2018 Chelsea Green Publishing

Makes you analyze everything from a different perspective

Very thought provoking read, provides real world and hypothetical examples of how you can look at something from a whole new perspective than how you already do. Concepts can be applied to any domain.

I love it.

Amazing book and I took a ton of very useful knowledge from it, but with that said I feel as if I will have to read back through a couple times to get everything.

A primer on thinking

Provides a deeply needed perspective on the complexity of our interconnected world. We need more people with this approach in mind.

Mind blowing, concept broadening, thought provoking.

I have listened to and Re listened to this audio book, each time seeing more ways to think.

Excellent book

The narrator was great, except she unforgivingly butchered a line of poetry, and I'm scarred.

Also, the book was excellent.