I quite enjoyed this book, which gives readers the tools to analyze complex systems. How does one force affect a stock, and what about counter-forces? How are dynamic equilibria produced? These are far-reaching questions well-explored in this book; they have impacts in any number of fields of study, ranging from policymaking to software engineering and even plumbing. Meadows dissects this field of study ably, breaking down an unthinably abstract domain into concrete components that are by themselves rather lucidly described.

I do wish that there had been a somewhat better system of notation developed. The systems that Meadows describes are largely depicted as graphs, and that is all to the good, but it seems to lack good graphical depiction of things like feedback loops; the diagrams are simply too wordy. This critique may seem superficial, and it is, but there is something lost in the fact that these diagrams can’t be well-represented as structured objects. It seems like there would be some use to a more thorough representation. Of course, it’s been nearly thirty years since the book was written; maybe such a representation has emerged and I just haven’t found it.

The latter third of the book is preoccupied with the shortcomings of systems thinking, and in particular the futility of systems analysts in trying to control a system. Here the language gets a little goofy and one senses that perhaps some of these chapters were written in the wee hours of the morning. But the point is clear enough, and it’s an admonition that I find myself in need of quite often: just because we can describe a system in crisp language and elegant diagrams, does not mean we can control it. The best we can do is to understand it better and better, and to do the best we can to pull the right levers at the right time. This part reminds me of Mary Poppendieck’s fascinating 2009 talk, The Tyranny of the Plan - I suspect that Meadows would have agreed with a large part of that talk.

This book should be considered required reading for anyone who is working with, or against, or within, any kind of complex system. It probably bears considerable study, follow-up, and re-reading.