Today we had a talk by Crawford Stanley (Buzz) Holling. Holling is an ex-director of IIASA and works in Ecological and Evolutionary Sciences and works with the Resilience Alliance. His talk was officially labeled "Broken Society, Broken Ecosystems, and Broken Planet". His talk though was primarily on the 2% solution. 98% of the time, the linear solution works. The data makes sense, but what about the 2%? Who cares? Well apparently all Systems Analysts should, this 2% falls within the realm of the exciting, the challenging and the place that allows us design new methodologies to tackle non-linear problems.
Another interesting quote came from a fellow YSSPer, "All models are bad, some are just more useful than others". Good words to live by at the moment.
2 comments:
If I will be even 2% as energetic, enthusiastic and smart as Buzz when I am his age (80!) then I will be a happy man!
I believe the original quote is from George E.P. Box: "All models are wrong, but some are useful." FYI. :->
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