“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them”

Russ Ackoff, pioneer systems engineer and operation research thinker passed out on October 29th. The Economist makes a very nice obtuary:

The meltdown of the financial system during 2007-08 was a classic example of the dangers of putting atomised thinking ahead of systems thinking. The conventional wisdom judged the efficiency of markets by the accuracy of individual prices rather than on their robustness in the event of shocks or their vulnerability when liquidity dries up. The performance of individual financial institutions was judged by their profits, their capital cushions and their risk-management systems, which were supposedly becoming ever more sophisticated but failed to detect the approaching systemic collapse.