Gerald Weinberg

When I did get Systemantics, what struck me as valuable was the treatment of systems as an entity in itself.  However, the work was a spoof, and the original being spoofed was most probably this one -



More from the author, of note, and in my reading list :

- Intro to general systems thinking
- psychology of programmer
- secrets of consultants
- design of stable systems
- series on Quality Software

The works on software and consulting are a much needed manual that's been missing for years. Oreilly Safari has a couple of titles. 'Managing expectations' seems to be a message from the universe.

Amazon has some, but are super expensive. Leanpub seems to have jumped into the fray, with $9.99 versions of all the needed ones.

[Skip intro]
To compare and contrast our early preoccupations -
Ashby :Design for a Brain ,
as well as
Ashby : Introduction to Cybernetics
Norbert Weiner's books on cybernetics

and honorable  mentions of  the appetites of the past, we never got past the menu
 metastate transition   ( The Phenomenon of Science : Valentin Turchin's ) ,  autopiesis (Maturana, Varela )...
Cliodynamics, Guns-germs-steel, Tainter -Collapse of Complex Societies - we were looking for seldonomics, vaguely.



[weinberg on writing]
1. Don't write on what you don't care about
2. people will tell you to write on what you know, ignore them
3. smarter  person are    unhappier.  The  cure seems to be self-expression. If you can't sing, dance,write or play an instrument, writing is pretty good

story -draft v1

".. is a loser who loses at losing, still a loser  ? "
asked Douglas Hofstadter, thoughtfully chewing a
bread stick..

"There are no paradoxes in nature."  replied John Galt,
shaking his head, face set and grim. 

He retrieves something from a pocket and gives it to
Douglas, who looks at it suspiciously.



It turns out to a card, with a black-and-white picture of
a woman with short 80s hair , and 
"Examine your premises carefully" printed at the
bottom, in gold letters. 

The letters glow mysteriously.



Douglas pushes back his chair, stands up, and walks t
o the bar, holding the card. 

He picks up a flashlight and a poker and wanders off. 



Bertrand Russell distractedly watched him go .

 He turned back to the papers on the table, scribbled
something angrily, and threw the pen down
in a fit of anger. 



"I have to check something in the library,"  he says,
and rushes off to the stairs.



"Let us say, there are two doors guarded by one guard
each, the first one always wins, and the
second one always loses..." , starts Raymond Smullyan.



In a dark corner of the room , Kurl Gødel rubbed his
hands gleefully.   



"You are technically correct, the only kind of correct !",  he said. Everyone gave a start, and turned
to look at him.



"Wait. my puzzle is incomplete !" says Smullyan



"Yes!! ",  cackles  Gødel,  "It is !!".  He turns to look
towards the piano  and nods at the player ,who
begins playing something gloomy and foreboding . 

As if on cue, lightning flashes through a window, 
illuminating a woodcut hanging above the pianist.
Thunder crashes far off. 

In the roaring emptiness outside, mist starts to roll ,
visible only through the front windows of the bar.



A bearded man sits next to Gødel, seemingly lost
in thought. He is staring at the wall unceasingly,
his beer and peanuts untouched. 



A knock on the door. A head poked itself through
the gap. 

“Courier to pick-up the order”,  a voice with a slightly
nasal twang, loud enough . 



It looks at Simon, who gets up and walks over to a
machine kept in the darkest corner of the room.
It looks like a cheap espresso machine, and is
painted black, and has  “Sodre Speed” etched in in
dull gold on the side. He pours a dark brown fluid
through a vent at the top, and cranks the lever
a few times. The machine starts whirring .

“It’ll be fast, “ says Simon, pulling out a slip of paper
from his pocket and clacking some buttons on
the machine. In a while, a sheet of paper slides itself
out of the machine, is pulled off by Simon,
who hands it to the courier.
The courier folds it carefully, inserts it into an envelope ,
which he places carefully in his
leather map-case, touches his cap, and leaves.


references
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del,_Escher,_Bach
- https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/ayn_rand_163204
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principia_Mathematica
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_A._Simon
- https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ743541.pdf