I’ve always felt like I see the world a little differently. More like a system than a set of disconnected parts. I naturally think in terms of how things fit together. It’s hard for me to make sense of something without seeing the bigger picture first.
That’s probably why I’ve never quite clicked with traditional education. Most of the time, you’re expected to start from the smallest details and build your way up. But I need the “why” before the “how.” Without context, the parts just don’t mean much to me.
One time, I was talking to my girlfriend about “systems,” and she laughed. Said it reminded her of how government workers (ASNs) always refer to “the system” without really explaining what it is. Fair enough. So, in the spirit of the Feynman technique, I want to explain what systems thinking means to me, in plain language.
Rather than give you a textbook definition, I’ll just share how I personally use it. For me, systems thinking is useful in two big ways:
- To understand how the world works.
- To make things happen on purpose.
1. Understanding the World Through Systems
When I’m trying to understand something, these are the principles I usually follow:
- Start with the whole. I need to see the big picture before I can understand the details.
- Break it down. Then rebuild it. I take things apart just to see how they work together.
- Know when to stop digging. There’s always more depth, but going too far can just confuse things. I aim for understanding, not endless analysis.
This way of thinking helps me avoid getting lost in the weeds. It lets me make sense of complex stuff without getting overwhelmed.
2. Making Things Happen with Systems Thinking
When I’m building or solving something, I shift gears a bit. Here’s what guides me:
- Begin with the outcome. What do I actually want to happen?
- Make a working theory. Based on what I know, how might this work?
- Put the pieces together. Try the idea, see how things interact, and adjust.
- Flow with the system, not against it. If something feels like a constant uphill battle, I probably need to rethink the design.
It’s not about forcing a solution. It’s about shaping one that fits how the system already wants to behave.
Real-Life Example: Building a Rule-Based Segmentation System
One project that demonstrated the usage of systems thinking was when I had to build a rule-based customer segmentation engine. The idea was simple on paper: marketers needed to define segments using flexible rules and get a list of customers who matched.
But the problem statement was pretty open-ended.
So, I started by stepping back. I realized the rules could be modeled as logical trees—conditions nested inside each other with ANDs and ORs. That reminded me of how compilers work with abstract syntax trees. From that, I figured out how to turn those rule trees into SQL queries. It made the system both flexible for marketers and efficient for execution.
Next came the execution engine. The part that actually executes the rules and produces the customer lists. This part had to be reliable. In the first version, the team took a conservative route: store every intermediate step in the database imperatively. That gave us traceability and resilience, even if it wasn’t the fastest.
Later, as the system matured, I redesigned the engine into something more elegant. I built a generic execution model using a state machine, so it could handle failures, retries, and long-running tasks in a predictable way. It became much easier to scale and adapt as needs changed.
What made this all work wasn’t a specific tool or language. It was the system mindset. I didn’t just write code. I modeled the problem, borrowed ideas from other domains, and evolved the design over time by thinking about how everything fit together.
Final Thoughts
Systems thinking isn’t just a technique. It’s a way of seeing. It helps me connect dots that others might miss. It pushes me to ask why before jumping into how. And most importantly, it gives me a way to build things methodically.
It allows me to build things I’ve never built before.
It allows me to learn complex subjects I had no prior knowledge.
Whether I’m working on software, solving a team issue, or just trying to understand how something works, systems thinking has been my most reliable tool.