Complexity & systems – We don’t need original, but we do need fresh
Your writing or work on systems thinking or complexity does not need to be original.
There is so much about complexity and systems thinking that people need to learn. Frankly, we don’t need new ideas, models, or methods. You should focus on either making new people aware or helping experienced people make what they have, clearer.
Don’t spend years on your book and let it bomb because you didn’t do this
The comedian stepped onto the stage holding a thick sheaf of A4 printer paper. He gave the audience a wink, glanced at the top sheet and read a joke. Silence. He dropped the piece of paper.
Open mic night
Years ago, friends and I went to a comedy club for some laughs and a burger.
Diagrams – Do they stop readers thinking?
A picture is worth a thousand words.
Or, a picture closes off a thousand thoughts.
To use pictures or diagrams to accompany, explain or clarify complex ideas is something that people take for granted.
If they won’t listen to your ideas, then what?
I finished the presentation and looked up at empty faces. I may as well have been telling knock, knock jokes for the previous thirty minutes.
In 2001, I was a software development team leader for a web/java team that built websites for JPMorgan Chase. We did it the same way as everyone else.
Then I discovered extreme programming (XP), which is an early Agile practice.
You can’t tell stories about complexity … but you must
A quick search on Twitter brings up these phrases from two tweets:
“Complex systems cannot be summarized by linear storytelling.”
“Complex systems defy causation, so linear stories that attempt to describe them are misconceived.”
These are common statements in the complexity and systems world. So should we drop stories? Yes and no.
How to write horrific complexity and systems books
A teenage boy stumbles down a narrow, dark hotel corridor. The doors loom over him as he staggers on, close to tears, trembling. Where is the serial killer? Is she here…?
How does the horror screenwriter shape this scene?
4 simple structures for a complexity or systems thinking book
Your book about complexity or systems thinking is overflowing with ideas. How can you order them clearly? Here are four simple structures to consider.
Is Star Wars about complexity?
It’s a classic hero’s journey. A farm boy’s destiny thrusts him into a quest to save the princess, battle the dark lord, and destroy the evil castle.
But what underpins Luke’s transformation? He grows up, learns to trust others to fight evil, but his real awakening is his awareness of The Force.
Release the reader’s tension – call and response
After a meandering, lyrical piano intro, the double bass locks in the tempo with a bubbling lick answered by two longer open chords from the keyboard. Then the bass takes back the initiative to scoop up the rhythm once more. Again the piano responds. After a few bars of this to and fro, the brass instruments join in with the piano’s gentle tug of war with the bassline.
So what?
Why is writing about complexity and systems so hard?
Writing about anything is difficult. How to describe people, places and things in an engaging and useful way is the problem facing any non-fiction writer.
But we who write about complexity and systems have it much worse.