Systems

"A set of elements or parts that is coherently organized and inter-connected in a pattern or structure that produces a characteristic set of behaviors, often classified as its function or purpose"

Systems

• Not just a sum of parts
• Interconnections operates through information-flow
• Function or purpose are the most crucial determinants of the system's behavior
• System structure induce system's behavior

Systems: stocks and flows

Stock acts as buffer, introducing delays in system's behaviors, it decouple inflows and outflows.

Balancing feedback loops

Tend to dynamic equilibrium

Reinforcing feedback loops

If there is no balancing loop to compensate, system growth exponentially until it collapses.

Feedback loops

• A feedback loop can only influence the future behabior of a system
• System's behavior depends on feedback loops strengths
• Delays in balancing feedbacks makes the system oscillate
• Changing delays length may change system's behavior