思考与写作thesystemsthinker.com
一生的系统思考
A Lifetime of Systems Thinking
2019 — 2021，它一次次回到首页
黑点是上首页（≥ 50 分）的那次投稿，空心点是没冲上去的投稿，点越大分数越高。
导读
这是系统思维大师罗素·艾可夫（Russell Ackoff）晚年回顾一生系统思考心得的文章，总结了他关于系统、问题解决、教育、医疗和企业管理的六大“启示”，例如“整体大于部分之和”“最好的办法不是解决问题而是消解问题”等反直觉观点。
为什么经久不衰：艾可夫的核心洞见——从整体而非局部看待问题——跨越领域依然适用，两次登上 HN 首页说明其对工程师和管理者的持久启发。
HN 评论精选
员工满意度是股东回报的前提，顺序不能颠倒
「大多数公司的首要职能不是最大化股东价值，而是最大化管理者的生活水平和工作质量；给股东回报是要求，而非目标。」我很喜欢这句话。乍听很尖锐，细想却揭示更深的道理：公司是由人组成的，如果这些人对工作不满意就会离开，为投资者创造价值也会更难。所以应该先最大化员工幸福感，同时给投资者足够的回报，而不是反过来。
ryanschneider查看英文原文
> The principal function of most corporations is not to maximize shareholder value, but to maximize the standard of living and quality of work life of those who manage the corporation. Providing the shareholders with a return on their investments is a requirement, not an objective. I love this quote. At first it sounds very critical, but thinking about it more it reveals something deeper: companies are a collection of people, if those people aren’t satisfied with the work they will move on and delivering value to investors will be that much harder. So maximize for worker happiness while delivering enough ROI to your investors, not the other way around.
完整概括了文章的六大核心启示
文章的六大启示：1）单独改善系统各部分的性能未必改善整体，甚至可能损害整体；2）问题本质上不是分学科的，而是整体性的；3）对待问题最好的办法不是解决它，而是消解它；4）美国的医疗体系不是医疗体系，而是疾病和残障照护体系；5）教育体系不是为了让学生学习，而是为了让老师教学——而教学恰恰是学习的主要障碍；6）大多数公司的首要职能不是最大化股东价值，而是最大化管理层的生活水平和工作质量。
kqr2查看英文原文
The Six Revelations from the article: Improving the performance of the parts of a system taken separately will not necessarily improve the performance of the whole; in fact, it may harm the whole. Problems are not disciplinary in nature but are holistic. The best thing that can be done to a problem is not to solve it but to dissolve it. The healthcare system of the United States is not a healthcare system; it is a sickness and disability-care system. The educational system is not dedicated to produce learning by students, but teaching by teachers—and teaching is a major obstruction to learning. The principal function of most corporations is not to maximize shareholder value, but to maximize the standard of living and quality of work life of those who manage the corporation.
教育问题或许不是设计失误，而是根本难以设计
关于教育体系「致力于教师教学而非学生学习」的说法，对也不对。Jeff Schmidt 的《Disciplined Minds》有另一种我更认同的观点：教育体系致力于培养政治上的服从性。这确实符合教师利益，也确实不为学习而设计。但能否真正设计、建立并持续运营一个可靠培养自学者和独立思考者的机构，尤其在高等教育层面，是很值得怀疑的——因为几乎无法衡量这种机构是否在成功履行使命。
solatic查看英文原文
> The educational system is not dedicated to produce learning by students, but teaching by teachers—and teaching is a major obstruction to learning. Yes and no. Disciplined Minds by Jeff Schmidt has a different take (one I agree with), which argues that the educational system is dedicated to producing political discipline. Yes, this serves the interest of the teachers, and no, the system is not designed to produce learning. But it's highly arguable whether you could truly design, build, and sustainably run an institution which reliably produces autodidacts and independent thinkers, particularly at higher levels, particularly since it's difficult to impossible to measure how reliably such an institution is succeeding at its mission.
学科分类的僵化是普遍问题，不限于科学
「有效的研究不是分学科的、跨学科的或多学科的，而是超学科的……科学把学科当作我们所经验现实的不同部分，实际上是假设现实的组织结构方式和大学一样。」不止科学领域如此，僵化、路径依赖的分类法是所有学科乃至日常生活的通病。
gumby查看英文原文
> Effective research is not disciplinary, interdisciplinary, or multidisciplinary; it is transdisciplinary... Disciplines are taken by science to represent different parts of the reality we experience. In effect, science assumes that reality is structured and organized in the same way universities are. Not just the sciences. Rigid, path-dependent taxonomies are a plague in all disciplines and in daily life.
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