Category: "Systems Thinking"
Making Connections
Have you ever really thought about why people make connections with others? It is both natural and mysterious - why connect with Person A, but not with person B? Certainly some of this is down to 'circumstances' - we will make connections (good or bad) with people that we share a close space with - at work, at school, in church, or wherever. There is, however, more to it than that.
Categories: Philosophical, Systems Thinking, Friends, Worldview, ----------
An Unlikely Chain of Events
There are a lot of different things that trigger the thoughts that end up expressed here in the blog. This particular post was inspired by a post on LinkedIn - I responded and then felt that it was appropriate to elaborate just a little here.
Categories: Philosophical, Systems Thinking, Learning, Worldview, ----------
Know Yourself .... Can You?
The wonders of the world wide web - not only have I made contact with lots of old friends, I have also made some very good new ones. I love the diversity of characters that you get to meet - and, in my experience, there are plenty of 'good' people - or - at least, people who give the impression of being 'good' because we all know how easy it is to create a persona that is false.
Categories: Philosophical, Systems Thinking, Complexity, Cognition, Worldview, ----------
The Other Side Of "If Only"
When you start to think about it, it is sobering - no - downright scary just how many people and events may be affected in the future by the decisions we make, individually and collectively, today. I may believe that I have some idea of the immediate effects however, given the way that the world is now connected so much more than ever before, it is next to impossible to determine the totality of the effect of each and every decision we make.
Categories: Philosophical, Systems Thinking, Friends, Complexity, Decision Making, Worldview, ----------
If Only
I have had personal and harrowing experience of the "if only" thoughts - I find it hardest to deal with in respect of how my actions (or my inaction) affects other people. I don't mean directly - since that is 'usually' understood at the time - at least to a certain extent - I am talking about decisions that have long term repercussions that are far from what is envisaged.
Categories: Philosophical, Systems Thinking, Decision Making, Worldview, ----------
The Tingle Factor
I was reminded last night of the power of music to affect you in a physical way - I don't pretend to understand how this works, but it is a very real experience as far as I am concerned. Music affects me in many different ways, depending on the nature of the music - soothing to calm me, martial to inspire, the possibilities are endless, but what I want to concentrate on here is the tingle factor when the power of the music sends a shiver through your body.
Categories: Systems Thinking, Music, Cognition, ----------
Its Not Just the Big Picture
The devil is in the detail
Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves
Big things come in small packages
The longest journey begins with one step
Categories: Philosophical, Systems Thinking, Friends, Decision Making, Cognition, Worldview, ----------
Understanding Backwards
It was Søren Kierkegaard who said that (and I paraphrase) life can only be understood backwards however we must live it forwards. Although I have been aware of that quote for quite some time it is only recently that I have begun to understand the real nature and truth of it.
Categories: Philosophical, Systems Thinking, Faith, Cognition, Worldview, ----------
Living in Parallel Worlds
Reading the book Anathem by Neal Stephenson has got me once again thinking about the many different worlds that we each live in. I have briefly mentioned this in a previous post, however now is a good time to expand on some of those ideas as well as to pull together what that means in terms of some of the other aspects of friendship and mental models that I have talked about.
Categories: Philosophical, Systems Thinking, Friends, Worldview, ----------
A Top Ten List
There is a tendency in this "Information Age" to assume that everything we need to know has been written/created in the last couple of months. This is, of course, patent nonsense however in some subjects there is a rather unfortunate tendency to forget all of the huge wealth of knowledge and wisdom we have from times before ... well before 2012!!
I came across an article written in 2001 (which I know isn't that old) which is actually in a style that is currently very popular - i.e. "N things you need to know about......" - often not a terribly useful way of addressing a subject, but just occasionally someone will get it right. This particular one is called 10 Useful Ideas on Systems Thinking and is well worth a look.
