A note from Daniel

Changing the length of a delay may utterly change behavior. If a decision point in a system (or a person working in that part of the system) is responding to delayed information, or responding with a delay, the decisions will be off target. Actions will be too much or too little to achieve the decision maker's goals. On the other hand, if action is taken too fast, it may nervously amplify short-term variation and create unnecessary instability. Delays determine how fast systems can react, how accurately they hit their targets, and how timely is the information passed around a system. Overshoots, oscillations, and collapses are always caused by delays.

Daniel Thinking In Systems, page 104 · March 5, 2025 Save to shelf

Notes like this take four seconds in Booksense. Scan the paragraph, it lands on the right page, and comes back for review later. Take your first note

More from readers of Thinking In Systems

Daniel p. 105

When there are long delays in feedback loops, some sort of foresight is essential. To act only when a problem becomes obvious is to miss an important opportunity to solve the problem.

Daniel Mar 5, 2025

Daniel p. 102

For any physical entity in a finite environment, perpetual growth is impossible. Ultimately, the choice is not to grow forever but to decide what limits to live within. If a company produces a perfect product or service at an affordable price, it will be swamped with orders until it grows to the point at which some limit decreases the perfection of the product or raises its price. If a city meets the needs of all its inhabitants better than any other city, people will flock there until some limit brings down the city's ability to satisfy peoples' needs.

Daniel Mar 5, 2025

Daniel p. 102

Any physical entity with multiple inputs and outputs—a population, a production process, an economy—is surrounded by layers of limits. As the system develops, it interacts with and affects its own limits. The growing entity and its limited environment together form a coevolving dynamic system.

Daniel Mar 5, 2025

Daniel p. 99

It's a great art to remember that boundaries are of our own making, and that they can and should be reconsidered for each new discussion, problem, or purpose. It's a challenge to stay creative enough to drop the boundaries that worked for the last problem and to find the most appropriate set of boundaries for the next question. It's also a necessity, if problems are to be solved well.

Daniel Mar 4, 2025

Daniel p. 97

There are no separate systems. The world is a continuum. Where to draw a boundary around a system depends on the purpose of the discussion-the questions we want to ask.

Daniel Mar 4, 2025

Daniel p. 94

Many relationships in systems are nonlinear. Their relative strengths shift in disproportionate amounts as the stocks in the system shift. Nonlinearities in feedback systems produce shifting dominance of loops and many complexities in system behavior.

Daniel Mar 4, 2025

More from Daniel

See their profile

Ultra Successful p. 61

when you study people who've created extraordinary lives, you realize they didn't follow templates for career paths and lifestyles; they designed their own blueprint.

Daniel Aug 12, 2026

Ultra Successful p. 60

The False Constraints That Limit Your Potential: - The Size of Your Opportunities I see that the most successful people swing big, even when they have no business taking those swings, and they often land The difference between you and them is your "willingness" to believe you belong in bigger conversations.

Daniel Aug 12, 2026

Ultra Successful p. 60

The False Constraints That Limit Your Potential: - How Quickly You Can Scale Whether it's your business or your career, there are unspoken timelines that people accept as gospel.They are all untrue: "You can only really grow at 10% a year." "You need to pay your dues for a decade before getting promoted." These artificial limits keep people moving at a crawl when they could be sprinting or pushing for more. The most successful people I know refuse to accept conventional wisdom about timelines, and oddly enough, they break them all the time.

Daniel Aug 12, 2026

Atomic Habits 0

• Being motivated and curious counts for more than being smart because it leads to action. • It is desire, not intelligence, that prompts behavior.

Daniel Aug 12, 2026

Ultra Successful p. 54

Our limits lie in our thinking. You need to root them out and rework them. A lack of self-belief will fundamentally change how you direct your actions...across all facets of your life. The person who thinks they "might not be capable" of being the next CTO will fill themselves with anxiety and be less likely to take any chances, even if they get there. Chances that might showcase their talents and make them outstanding in their work.

Daniel Aug 11, 2026

Ultra Successful p. 54

Keeping the Fire, Slaying the Dragon (Part II) - People won't promote or fund me vs I AM JUST TALKING TO THE WRONG PEOPLE - I'm not built like X person vs I CAN LEVERAGE WHAT / KNOW TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN - My company isn't built for distance vs I CAN ARCHITECT THIS TO GO WHERE I WANT - These might not work vs I WILL PUT THIS INTO THE WORLD AND SEE WHAT COMES

Daniel Aug 11, 2026

Stop losing the best parts of what you read.

Booksense pushes your highlights back to you for review, so a note from page 174 is still yours a year later. Free on iOS.

Get Booksense free