Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

The whole book is an argument against growth (cf the title). More specifically, all the models implicitly assume that rising costs will never reduce demand (and thus consumption), drive the search for alternatives, or make increased efficiency economically viable. It like writing a book called "The limits to driving" and showing that pretty much every car on the road will quickly smash into something if the drivers are assumed to continue accelerating in their present direction, and no one is going to use their steering wheel or breaks effectively.


Thinking in Systems: A Primer is an introduction into systems thinking, about stocks (resources), flows (actions) and feedback loops. The book isn't an argument against growth, but an argument for the sustainability of systems, especially how to think about and model them. The boundaries of a modelled system are purely conceptional and won't exist in the real world like we'd wrongly assume, D. Meadows makes this more than clear. I think @arthurjj is reading something into it that just isn't there.


Ah. Thank you. I misread the thread.


This particular subthread is about the book Thinking in Systems, not The Limits to Growth.

While related, they are not the same book.


My bad. Thank you for the correction.


*brakes. Freudian slip much? ;)

If you're curious, Meadows has addresses this common counterargument about price (time stamp directly to the relevant remark, but the whole talk is excellent):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuIoego-xVc&t=614s




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: