General Principles of Systems Design 1975, 279pp, Wiley [
ISBN 0471925632 (
amazon.com,
search)]
by
JerryWeinberg & Daniela Weinberg
Could someone please confirm this ISBN? The book on the end of the Amazon link has a different title. Thanks. -- Keith Braithwaite
My copy is [ISBN 0-932633-07-2 (amazon.com, search)] -- lb
A follow on piece to Weinerg's AnIntroductionToGeneralSystemsThinking, it expands and elaborates the themes of the former. This volume makes the transition from background in general systems to the intentional creation of systems that ought to be stable. Indeed in its original release, the book was titled: OnTheDesignOfStableSystems.
Of Jerry's many books, this one was written in collaboration with his wife, DanielaWeinberg?. It's interesting to me how each of Weinberg's collaborations has a pretty coherent style, but a style different from his own, when writing by himself. -- JamesBullock
Whew! Just finished it! (
OnTheDesignOfStableSystems edition - old copy from college library) This material really explores non-linear processes and why we should be thankful that balancing forces make things stabilize rather than explode geometrically. It's a tough read, but you come away much more aware. Makes you appreciate modern publishing when you look at all the equations (with subscripts of subscripts) and very flat-looking illustrations. I enjoyed the explanation of why classical math is unsatisfactory for application to the problems in the social sciences: "soft scientists give up on math as useless" (until they hit on statistics and differential analysis, if they ever do!) The analytical exploration of composite systems leaves you a little messed up realizing how much reevaluating you have to do on "hard problems" in life.
I guess this might be a reference for world makers -- either gods or game designers!!!
Recommended, but plan on taking it slowly. -- BobLee, August 2003
A
BookOnTheBookshelf of the
SeeingSystems category.
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