QUERY How to promote good work (SD6555)

[SDMAIL Richard Stevenson]

Posted by  Richard Stevenson <rstevenson at valculus.com>

Today I received several personal emails from SD mail subscribers  
around the world who all (my summary) said, "we have given up subscribing 
to this forum because many people  consider the SD mailing list to be
a place where only politically correct thoughts are accepted."

None of them wanted to be identified - because there's no mileage in  
being a rebel, apparently.  But clearly some people do actually want  
to change the world through SD - not simply to further their  
intellectual curiosity or their academic ambitions.  And clearly none 
 of them believes that the ISDS represents their views -  nor that the  
 centre of SD is in Boston.

And that's my point, actually.  Cozy introspection and  
congratulations are the hallmark of the ISDS.  But it's no longer  
enough.

We all know that Jay is a genius - accepted.  Clever causal loop  
diagram games are fun.   But please - now let's move on and make SD a  
serious subject  for change in the real world.  The ISDS is  
abrogating its power and its responsibilities. And - dare I say it -  
adulation is not constructive.

The SDS website (http://www.systemdynamics.org/).  It's outdated,  
boring and uninformative, particularly to the non-academic inquirer.

The Beer Game is old, for heavens sake.  So what else can the SD  
mailing list offer, besides garrotting at source new, interesting  
exchanges of views on serious systemic matters that transcend causal  
loops and stocks and flows?  There is a VERY fine line between  
moderation and censorship - and I firmly that believe the mailing  
list moderation leans strictly to the latter.

In my opinion (and clearly more widely) the SD Society itself has  
become a moribund, introspective, techno-fascinated, academic  
dinosaur that is slowly strangling the growth of our field.   
It is,  to be frank, unprofessional.

But we have to be careful, too.  In particular, in the 1990's the  
"systems thinking" movement also threatened to remove academic  
substance from the field.  That flank needs to be protected, too.

Apparently SD wants to be loved ( i.e. academically respected) and  
also wanted (i.e. gainfully employed) at the same time.

Time, I believe, for a new paradigm in system dynamics? But - 
do we  have to demolish the temple first?

I think that maybe we do.


Richard Stevenson
Valculus Ltd
Posted by  Richard Stevenson <rstevenson at valculus.com>
posting date  Sun, 2 Sep 2007 21:34:19 +0100