REPLY How to promote good work (SD6557)

[system-dynamics at vensim.com]

Posted by  Bob Eberlein <bob at vensim.com

I gave Mr. Stevenson's post a constructive title, as I assume his intent
was too look for good suggestions to move forward and not simply to 
criticize the status quo.

I spoke with Jay after his speech on the next 50 years at the conference 
and told him I should neve have picked the title "The Death of System 
Dynamics" for the thread Mr. Stevenson initiated this spring. Jay responded
that it was a fine title, that the questions need to be discussed, and 
provoking people is a sensible approach.

Jay was troubled by the lack of thoughful responses by experienced people, 
and so am I. Mr. Stevenson has not put forward any proposal about what 
should be done, but simply leveled criticism at what is being done. Without
thoughtful responses such provocations are indeed a waste of time and can 
only leave one with a sense of despair. 

It is not because Mr. Stevenson is right that I, and I assume others, have
not responsed more forcefully. Rather it is because so many of the things he 
says are patently wrong, or do not seem to have a constructive purpose, that
there has been only silence.

On bahalf of all of my colleagues who have been working for years and decades
to build up the System Dynamics Society let me just say how absurd Mr. 
Stevenson's claims are. I can think of no single individual that has done work
for the Society with the intent of any sort of self promotion or any expectation 
of personal reward. I have seen a lot of people do an amazing amount of work 
over a lot of years. Those people come from around the globe, many of course 
from the USA and the UK, but it is hardly limited to that.

As far as censorship goes - I have to take personal responsibility for that.
I post to this list things that are relevant and interesting. I do not post 
things that fail to meet those, what I consider quite low, thresholds. I am
not sure that Mr. Stevenson's latest post quite meets that standard. In it is
nothing new from what he has already posted beyond the suggestion that there
are a number of people who share his views. Still, I am hoping this time there 
might be some concrete ideas that come of the thread. Certainly if a group
of people desire an alternative forum in which to discussion matters apart
from what appears on this list, news of such a forum would be both interesting
and relevant.


One more note on censorship. I will not post anything that looks to be inflamatory
in nature. Generally, I simply remove a line or two in order to make the
tendency to start yelling go away. If you object to that say so at the beginning
with a line such as [Do not edit except to remove this], and I will simply post, or
if I would have edited not post, what you have written.

Bob Eberlein 
Posted by  Bob Eberlein <bob at vensim.com
posting date  Mon, 3 Sep 2007 12:34:19 -0500