Thinking in Systems and Mental Models: Think Like a Super Thinker. Primer to Learn the Art of Making a Great Decision and Solving Complex Problems. Chaos Theory, Science of Thinking for Social Change

by Marcus P. Dawson

Do you want to understand the roles of thinking in systems and how they affect, hinder, or aid in fulfilling your life? Do you want to increase your thinking skills and build effective mental models?Just as every node on a network contributes to the final result, every action of a member of a particular organizational system contributes to the outcome.  Without a broad view of interconnectedness, our problem-solving skills are limited and short-sighted, and our abilities to make long-term, beneficial decisions are hampered. If we only look to the immediate and the superficial, we forget that we rely on the smallest of parts. If we don’t acknowledge our interdependence's complexity, then we are doomed to replicate a system that will ultimately fail.  Awareness of our interconnectedness is key to solving the biggest and most complex problems we face in contemporary society.

The real question is not whether we should use systems thinking, but which of the many ideas, approaches, and techniques currently associated with the field of systems thinking are most useful in specific settings. In 1943, Kenneth Craik, a Scottish psychologist,  explained that the human mind expects events and describes fundamentals by building small-scale models of the real world. A mental model is a way we represent and understand an event, phenomenon, or system compactly. There is a mental model for everything that happens around you.

In this book, you will

• The key concepts of systems thinking• How to solve any problem with a step-by-step method• Tips to improve your decision-making process• The role of Chaos Theory in systems thinking• What is wrong with your current way of thinking, and how you can improve it• Strategies for developing habits, mental toughness, and resilience to combat mental clutter• 40 mental models that you can use in your daily life• Identify the mental models you already use everyday• How to expand your set of mental models, create new ones and use them effectively… And much more!

Systems thinking provides a framework for defining and solving problems. Start by paying attention to the questions you ask to practice thinking from a more systemic perspective. Extend your sense of what constitutes "the present." Try to think as "now" in terms of a more extended block of time. Ask yourself what happened just a year ago. What is going on now? What happened last year? We can grasp interconnections that we may not have seen before by extending our sense of the "now."

You are changing the way you think! It is not something easy and is an extremely challenging task. Just think about it. That is the way you have thought for all these years of your life.

Mental models influence your behavior and perception of things. You will be astonished as to how you start seeing the world in a different light the moment you expose yourself to a new mental model. Once you start using them in your life, your day-to-day life will start becoming so much easier. There is no end to the number of mental models that exist on this earth, and you will learn about so many of them in this book. Right now.

Genres: Nonfiction

292 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 17, 2020

Reviews

[Mike Burke · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don't bother - Ripoff!

The author seems to have a real background in systems analysis, and occasionally says some interesting things, and that's the ONLY good thing about this book. It is impossible to learn any useful principles of systems thinking from this book. There are no practical examples or exercises in this book. There are no diagrams in this book. There are no relevant footnotes. There are no endnotes. There is no index. It was apparently written by someone whose English is poor (non-native speaker), and it is badly edited. I doubt that "Dawson" is the author's actual name because the syntax mistakes are more consistent with an Asian language. It rambles and lacks relevant coherence.

The problem with books published on Amazon, is that there are no standards, and you can't find out that you've been scammed until after you've wasted your money and your time. Positive reviews of this book are obviously planted and fake.

[Shhhhh Ahhhhh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't think this book is realistically 4 stars but I think that for the sake of other potential readers, that is the appropriate rating for the value they MAY derive from it.

Overall this book was mess. It was all over the place. It was bouncing from science to tactics to strategy to philosophy without much strict delineation or structure. This is what I would expect if you gave someone Cialdini, Kahneman, and the 48 Laws of Power and told them 'go crazy'.

I have almost no significant takeaways from this book. There are a few noteworthy turns of phrase that I may use as they consolidate m understandings (in terms of token-length) but otherwise, the only thing that I got out of it was a reframe of a 'mental model'. I always figured a mental model was a toy version of a system encapsulating the rules of a given system. I did not realize people were using that to also describe metamodels that they use to create mental models.

I think I would have gotten a lot more out of this book if they had done areal deep dive and analysis on the anatom of a mental model, the application contexts, the failure modes, etc. Like, i get that the point of this book was to convey a grab bag of the avilable models, probably as this author's first forray into writing, but there's no value add the way it is currently.

I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone in my network as they are more likely to absorb this information from osmosis if they have read my revieews than they are to effectively do so from this book. If anyone is looking for a 'readable' primer on the available mental models, go for it, but doni't say I didn't warn you.

[Erik · Rating 1 out of 5]

Reads like a bad translation into English.

Honestly didn't read more than the first two paragraphs of the introduction, but it was pretty clear that this was either written by somebody who was a non-native English speaker (and couldn't afford proofreading), or a really terrible writer (who also couldn't afford proofreading).

[Grzegorz · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's a scam.

[!Black · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is absolute trash. It falls disappointingly short, providing nothing more than a very shallow description of typical mental models like the Pareto principle, Eisenhower matrix, and others. It appears as if the author lacks a profound understanding of these models, seemingly stumbling upon them on the internet just hours before writing the book. The result is a hastily put-together compilation of case studies where individuals supposedly applied these models, coupled with the author's personal hypotheses that amount to little more than hopeful optimism about how these models could potentially enhance one's life.

The entire content of the book could be condensed into what an enthusiastic 20-year-old student might excitedly share after learning something new: "Hey, I just discovered something called 'mental models,' and I (just believe!) that if you apply them, your life could be incredibly better!"

There's a glaring absence of practical processes, foundational understanding, or intensive, exhaustive studies of the models themselves. The book lacks substance, providing little more than surface-level insights that leave the reader questioning the author's depth of knowledge on the subject. Overall, "Thinking in Systems and Mental Models" is a disappointing read, offering little value beyond a cursory introduction to concepts readily available online.

[Nen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am not native English. And I doubt deeply my English level and feel frustrated when I read only introduction...

But I am happy when I come here to find natives could't understand it either. hahaha

[Katrina Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic job!

Its opening your mind and getting you to think. Its about truly tapping into your mind and using it the right way.

[Nicole Harmon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mental state

It's about mental models and how we think. It's about what the brains instincts are. Good to read with a cup of coffee. Recommend.

[Izaak · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this would be about "systems thinking". I was wrong, it's kind of a self help book; maybe? It's so all over the place it's hard to place what it's about.

[Shalabha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great content but very poorly structured