QUERY How to promote good work (SD6555)
Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 2:35 pm
Posted by Bob Eberlein <bob@vensim.com>
I gave Mr. Stevenson's post a constructive title, as I assume his intent was too look for good suggestions to move forward and not simply to criticize the status quo.
I spoke with Jay after his speech on the next 50 years at the conference and told him I should neve have picked the title ""The Death of System Dynamics"" for the thread Mr. Stevenson initiated this spring. Jay responded that it was a fine title, that the questions need to be discussed, and provoking people is a sensible approach.
Jay was troubled by the lack of thoughful responses by experienced people, and so am I. Mr. Stevenson has not put forward any proposal about what should be done, but simply leveled criticism at what is being done. Without thoughtful responses such provocations are indeed a waste of time and can only leave one with a sense of despair.
It is not because Mr. Stevenson is right that I, and I assume others, have not responsed more forcefully. Rather it is because so many of the things he says are patently wrong, or do not seem to have a constructive purpose, that there has been only silence.
On bahalf of all of my colleagues who have been working for years and decades to build up the System Dynamics Society let me just say how absurd Mr.
Stevenson's claims are. I can think of no single individual that has done work for the Society with the intent of any sort of self promotion or any expectation of personal reward. I have seen a lot of people do an amazing amount of work over a lot of years. Those people come from around the globe, many of course from the USA and the UK, but it is hardly limited to that.
As far as censorship goes - I have to take personal responsibility for that.
I post to this list things that are relevant and interesting. I do not post things that fail to meet those, what I consider quite low, thresholds. I am not sure that Mr. Stevenson's latest post quite meets that standard. In it is nothing new from what he has already posted beyond the suggestion that there are a number of people who share his views. Still, I am hoping this time there might be some concrete ideas that come of the thread. Certainly if a group of people desire an alternative forum in which to discussion matters apart from what appears on this list, news of such a forum would be both interesting and relevant.
One more note on censorship. I will not post anything that looks to be inflamatory in nature. Generally, I simply remove a line or two in order to make the tendency to start yelling go away. If you object to that say so at the beginning with a line such as [Do not edit except to remove this], and I will simply post, or if I would have edited not post, what you have written.
Bob Eberlein
Posted by Bob Eberlein <bob@vensim.com
posting date Mon, 3 Sep 2007 12:34:19 -0500 _______________________________________________
I gave Mr. Stevenson's post a constructive title, as I assume his intent was too look for good suggestions to move forward and not simply to criticize the status quo.
I spoke with Jay after his speech on the next 50 years at the conference and told him I should neve have picked the title ""The Death of System Dynamics"" for the thread Mr. Stevenson initiated this spring. Jay responded that it was a fine title, that the questions need to be discussed, and provoking people is a sensible approach.
Jay was troubled by the lack of thoughful responses by experienced people, and so am I. Mr. Stevenson has not put forward any proposal about what should be done, but simply leveled criticism at what is being done. Without thoughtful responses such provocations are indeed a waste of time and can only leave one with a sense of despair.
It is not because Mr. Stevenson is right that I, and I assume others, have not responsed more forcefully. Rather it is because so many of the things he says are patently wrong, or do not seem to have a constructive purpose, that there has been only silence.
On bahalf of all of my colleagues who have been working for years and decades to build up the System Dynamics Society let me just say how absurd Mr.
Stevenson's claims are. I can think of no single individual that has done work for the Society with the intent of any sort of self promotion or any expectation of personal reward. I have seen a lot of people do an amazing amount of work over a lot of years. Those people come from around the globe, many of course from the USA and the UK, but it is hardly limited to that.
As far as censorship goes - I have to take personal responsibility for that.
I post to this list things that are relevant and interesting. I do not post things that fail to meet those, what I consider quite low, thresholds. I am not sure that Mr. Stevenson's latest post quite meets that standard. In it is nothing new from what he has already posted beyond the suggestion that there are a number of people who share his views. Still, I am hoping this time there might be some concrete ideas that come of the thread. Certainly if a group of people desire an alternative forum in which to discussion matters apart from what appears on this list, news of such a forum would be both interesting and relevant.
One more note on censorship. I will not post anything that looks to be inflamatory in nature. Generally, I simply remove a line or two in order to make the tendency to start yelling go away. If you object to that say so at the beginning with a line such as [Do not edit except to remove this], and I will simply post, or if I would have edited not post, what you have written.
Bob Eberlein
Posted by Bob Eberlein <bob@vensim.com
posting date Mon, 3 Sep 2007 12:34:19 -0500 _______________________________________________