Sarah Rice

That is because they are intrinsically systems problems—undesirable behaviors characteristic of the system structures that produce them.

Ever since the Industrial Revolution, Western society has benefited from science, logic, and reductionism over intuition and holism.

On the one hand, we have been taught to analyze, to use our rational ability, to trace direct paths from cause to effect, to look at things in small and understandable pieces, to solve problems by acting on or controlling the world around us. That training, the source of much personal and soci-etal power, leads us to see presidents and competitors,... See more

So, what is a system? A system is a set of things—people, cells, molecules, or whatever—interconnected in such a way that they produce their own pattern of behavior over time. The system may be buffeted, constricted, triggered, or driven by outside forces. But the system’s response to these forces is characteristic of itself, and that response is... See more

“People who are direct are generally in touch with themselves and their desires. People who are habitually indirect usually aren’t. This is because people who are indirect don’t have much experience with their inner world making contact with the outer world. They sit and theorize instead of saying it out loud and seeing... See more