Go ahead, look up systems theory. I like to think the 5 or 10 people who read this are pretty intelligent, (hi Grandma), so you’ll probably be able to make sense of it. That is, after realizing that the three-to-seven paragraphs you just wasted several minutes of your life deciphering can be boiled down, essentially, into, “lots of stuff affects stuff.”
Systems people love quotes like this. Also, "to encourage the development of theoretical systems which are applicable to more than one of the traditional departments of knowledge."
The summer I was 14 my mom brought me with her to the International Society for the Systems Sciences conference at Asilomar, just a short drive down the coast from San Francisco. She introduced me to at least two dozen brilliant, well-respected academics from every discipline and every corner of the globe. They were all excited for the chance to explain their specialty, and how it related to systems theory, to someone my age. After several discussions – and being the only teenager there, all my discussions were about systems theory – I got a decent grasp of what it was all about.
And as soon as that happened I realized how obvious it was. Lots of stuff effects stuff. If you have a problem in a system, you have to look at the whole system. This way of thinking is apparently alien to some people.
It was the way I’d been doing it all along.
The next year, I came back again, with my mom, and after a couple meetings with some very forward-thinking members of the society, started gathering signatures to form a youth chapter. It was a piece of cake. Besides me, the next member of the society farthest from death was my mom, and they all knew it. There were long conversations going on about the future and how to make systems meaningful to the rest of the world during every meal, between every lecture, and one especially long one on the last morning of the conference, by the president, while everyone sat there trying not to nod off.
I’d been thinking about how to make systems theory relevant all week. As one of three people there bothering to actually help plan what a youth chapter might be like, I had started thinking about how to make systems theory make sense to someone, say, my age – without having to ask 14 PhDs with accents. I made some diagrams. I took some notes. I had some discussions.
I don’t know if I succeeded in making anyone give a crap – I never went back. A youth chapter was created, and may still be around, but from what I know it only attracted masters students who were already interested in the field.
I had become fed up with the inability of anyone there to understand the importance of simplicity. They wanted to get their message out, yet refused to take initiative to make it relevant to anyone without a doctorate. All they had to do was define a target market and tailor their messaging. It was as obvious to me as systems theory itself had been.
Three years later I applied to ad school.
I now realize there are reasons people go to conferences that have nothing to do with changing the world. Apologies to all the wonderful people of ISSS for being that annoying teenager who takes it all way too seriously. And, by the way, thanks.
One Comment
There is an active youth chapter at ISSS – and many people in systems are not Master’s students or Ph.Ds — largely because of your influence, there are now a coupe programs doing outreach in HS science programs.
While I have not attended ISSS in a couple years, at least in 2005 & 6, you are correct in saying that the ISSS Youth SIG was largely co-opted by 2 people focused in a couple ares and mainly meant for MA students. It was and remains, extremely sad – and not at all what was envisioned the years you attended with me.
Systems theory provides powerful tools for research and for work in the real world, it remains radical – whether or not ISSS lives or fades away.