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Originally Posted by !@#$%!
now, about this book i mentioned above
the first part and the whole history of the world until ww2 i got, even if i thought that he was stretching metaphors and oversimplifying a bit. but okay. he's all about the value of generalists. so i'll allow it--great pirates, fine, i get your meaning.
but when i hit the chapter about general systems theory however i felt like i was being conned by a flimflam artist. i don't know what the fuck he's really saying. it's like he makes these leaps of thought and we're supposed to follow him because he's being obscure. i don't think so.
so i'm taking a detour and started reading about general systems theory on the side, to see if he's making bullshit claims. i'm okay if he wants to stretch metaphors for a reason, but he seems to get overly esoteric on this chapter for a proclaimed "generalist" and i can't trust what he's saying.
hmmmm....
needs deciphering.
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Hah. I had to read "Spaceship Earth" in grad school. I had a similar reaction. It wasn't the focal point of any in-depth study or even extended discussion, but was instead used as a supplemental text for a Systems Science seminar.
Some people got really into it, others didn't bother reading it at all. I was turned off by the by excessive use of metaphor and simile, but I think I "get" the purpose of using this book as a jumping off point for a discussion-based class on systems. There's also an almost creepy prescience to some of the suggestions made in this book.
I think we have ourselves a bit of a "Great Pirate" dominating much of the world's attention at this very moment, for instance. Ah, but what the hell do I know.