SV: Terez on Sloganeering

[Øgland - Petter <petter.ogland@skatteetaten.no>]

Steven Prevette suggested Rube Golberg devises for illustrating the
importance of systems thinking, or how a non-systemic view of the world
differs from a systemic view.

>I love those old Rube Golberg devices.  Take any item individually and
>you cannot fathom how it could possible contribute to the relatively
>simple thing the whole system was attempting to accomplish.  But look at
>the Rube Golberg system in its entirety, and it is (humorously) elegant.

I feel there may be something insightful about the suggestion, but I'm not
quite sure what it is.  As far as I can see, the humour in the Rube Golberg
illustrations is that they show rather complicated systems (inelegant
systems) for solving trivial mechanical problems.

Could you please elaborate your point, Steven.  Do you mean that systems
thinking is a joke, Rube Golberg illustrating the level of ridiculousness
that can be achieved when engineers rule the world and treat everything as
systems?

Petter Ogland