On systems theory, I’ll recommend “Thinking in Systems: A Primer” is a great general audiences book, with a great nontechnical approach.If you are looking for something more mathematical, you’ll need to ask someone else; I’m just not well read enough. (Despite being a math major back in school.)
“The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization” is a great book, but not as useful for systems theory in general, it’s a more domain specific book. (I would recommend it, but not as the best book on the subject generally)
“Introduction to Systems Thinking” by Kim is just not as good; it’s a fine book, but small and not at all comprehensive.
There are some great, slightly more technical books on the subject, like An Introduction to General Systems Thinking by Weinberg, as well, I am sure, as others. I haven’t read enough of them to say that that specifically stands out among technical books on the subject. (If anyone has recommendations on the technical side, I’d love to hear them, as I would like to see more.)
I haven’t read the books you mention, but it seems that Sterman’s ‘Business Dynamics: Systems thinking and modeling for a complex world’ covers mostly the same topics, and it felt really well written, I’d recommend that one as an option as well.
I have not read it, but the title and the reviews on amazon seem to imply that the book isn’t about systems theory, it’s about applications of systems theory to business and economics, two great applications, but not the subject itself. Physics books may be great, and they may need to explain math, but they are not math books. If this is indeed a business book, I’d hesitate to recommend it as a book on systems theory.
It goes on from the reasons of systems thinking through the theoretical foundation, the maths used, and the practical applications and pretty much all common types of issues seen in real world.
It’s about 5 times larger volume (~1000 A4 pages) than the Meadows’ “Thinking in Systems”, so not exactly textbook format, but covers the same stuff quite well and more. Though, it does spend much of the second half of the book focusing almost exclusively on practical development of system dynamics models.
On systems theory, I’ll recommend “Thinking in Systems: A Primer” is a great general audiences book, with a great nontechnical approach.If you are looking for something more mathematical, you’ll need to ask someone else; I’m just not well read enough. (Despite being a math major back in school.)
“The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization” is a great book, but not as useful for systems theory in general, it’s a more domain specific book. (I would recommend it, but not as the best book on the subject generally)
“Introduction to Systems Thinking” by Kim is just not as good; it’s a fine book, but small and not at all comprehensive.
There are some great, slightly more technical books on the subject, like An Introduction to General Systems Thinking by Weinberg, as well, I am sure, as others. I haven’t read enough of them to say that that specifically stands out among technical books on the subject. (If anyone has recommendations on the technical side, I’d love to hear them, as I would like to see more.)
I haven’t read the books you mention, but it seems that Sterman’s ‘Business Dynamics: Systems thinking and modeling for a complex world’ covers mostly the same topics, and it felt really well written, I’d recommend that one as an option as well.
I have not read it, but the title and the reviews on amazon seem to imply that the book isn’t about systems theory, it’s about applications of systems theory to business and economics, two great applications, but not the subject itself. Physics books may be great, and they may need to explain math, but they are not math books. If this is indeed a business book, I’d hesitate to recommend it as a book on systems theory.
It goes on from the reasons of systems thinking through the theoretical foundation, the maths used, and the practical applications and pretty much all common types of issues seen in real world.
It’s about 5 times larger volume (~1000 A4 pages) than the Meadows’ “Thinking in Systems”, so not exactly textbook format, but covers the same stuff quite well and more. Though, it does spend much of the second half of the book focusing almost exclusively on practical development of system dynamics models.