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