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Chicago 15th July. Travelling back from an arduous but immensely enjoyable ten days or so re-creating the first half of the “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” #ZMM50thRide with 20 other fine people, referred to tongue-in-cheek by the DeWeese family as “Pirsig Pilgrims”. It really was about the people for me. As Mark Richardson … Continue reading “About a Book”

Gary’s ISSS Mini Symposium (Talk) 29 June 2024 Everything can be seen as organised systems that are part of greater wholes. (Organised in terms of functional relations – systemic interconnectedness). Everywhere and everything. We see complexity and confusion that can be organised as a learning system. Complex Adaptive Systems as “Learning Organisation” (Argyris & Schon)? … Continue reading “Thinking Systems Thoughts”

Mentioned in the dear diary entry a couple of days ago on return from the last trip that there is too much too good about the USA, given its short history, that they cannot be allowed to fuck it up for themselves or the rest of the world. We’re not all America, but we all … Continue reading “We’re America”

John Wilson interviewed Simon McBurney on BBC Radio 4’s “This Cultural Life“ and I only caught it by chance this morning. Glad I did. [McBurney – privileged life, archaeologist father, born and raised in Cambridge, boarding school, family holidays in Jersey, Eng Lit at Cambridge, the Footlights, Parisian introduction to a creative life in the … Continue reading “The Connections Never End”

Hawking’s “Brief History of Time” (1988) is something I read back when it was first a best-seller – bought as a present for me by a parent or family friend IIRC – long before I discovered the research topic that became “Psybertron”. Sometime late 90’s not long before I did start here, we bought Kate … Continue reading “The Cartoon History of Time”

This should probably be three or four separate posts, but after a two week hiatus – the ISSS conference in Washington DC and another week touring the wider DC, MD, VA, DE, Chesapeake area – I have so much not written over and above the writing project I’ve already stalled until after my next US … Continue reading “Dear Diary – June 2024 – Systems, USA and Tyranny”

I formed my own view of how Systems Thinking came to be the umbrella term for what I’m about, and I can be quite dismissive of the choice of labelling given to different approaches and methodologies – which always feel like selling different commercial education and consultancy offerings. And when reading and researching about the … Continue reading “Brief History of Systems Thinking”

“Turning 50: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” is a BBC Radio 4 “Archive on 4” edition broadcast last weekend to mark the 50th anniversary of publication of Robert Pirsig’s “culture-bearing” book in 1974. #ZMM50th The host and interviewer is Dr Chris Harding, the voice of BBC Radio 3’s “Free Thinking” so I really … Continue reading “Turning 50: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”