Bulldozer00's Blog

I recently finished reading John Warfield’s An Introduction To System Science . John asserts that whenever you try to design a system that will involve human beings during its operation (and what non-trivial system doesn’t? ), you must take into account these two universal human characteristics:

• The primal instinct to survive
• Miller’s number: 7 plus or minus 2

If your technical system design doesn’t pay homage to these human frailties, it will most likely fail – big time. The money will be gone, the time will be gone, and the damn thing won’t work. Warfield claims that his generic system design process effectively deals with these issues. In his book, John describes his process and cites several examples of it’s success in the public, private, and educational domains.

Warfield also says that the biggest hurdle to overcome, which he doesn’t have a solution for, is the propensity of high level executives  for refusing to accept/acknowledge great ideas founded on firm principles from subordinates. I believe what John says, but in my layman’s mind, I equate this strange and unproductive behavior with  egomania. The higher up you go and the more titles that you acquire, the bigger and fatter your head gets. Of course, there are always exceptions to every rule :^)