Day 7: Give Causal Loop Diagrams a Spin

On Day 6 we learned about Causal Loop Diagrams from Donella Meadows. Today we'll get a little practice using causal loop diagrams to understand interacting effects in a system. Deciding what to explore can be the hard part, so here are some options (pick one, or explore a tricky/sticky challenge you face):

  • the effect of adding lanes to a highway (induced traffic)
  • bringing wolves back to Yellowstone (watch 4 minute video)
  • the "flywheel effect" (eg etsy flywheel) to explore growth strategy (where value increases when other people also consume the same brand or participate on the same platform)
  • technical debt (in the colloquial sense): how does it arise, how is it sustained, what can we do to avoid it or to get out of vicious cycles?
  • explore impact of genai or agentic ai on understanding and skills

If you're feeling stuck and casting about for ideas, you might like to look at one of these examples (software engineering related):

 

"lifted from the context in which they are naturally embedded, some events not only would not occur; they could not occur. Others would change dramatically. The keyword here is embedded [..] In various guises, context dependence is widespread. Nevertheless, settings, circumstances, conditions, and context in general continued to be ignored" - Alicia Juarrero, Context Changes Everything