Today, we're going to think about how to think in interconnected ways. Think as if one thing impact all the others. To think in systems. And let's start with in space, with the universe.
Systems thinking

As far as we know, the universe was born about 13.8 billions years ago, give or take a few years. The main accepted theory, which is supported by scientific evidence, is that it was born in an event that we call the Big Bang. It marked not only the beginning of space, but also the beginning of time. According to the theory, time did not exist before the big bang. I find that fascinating. The universe after the big bang was just clusters of atoms expanding from the initial bang. But over time, using the forces of gravity and electromagnetism, matter organized itself. How? It organized itself into systems. The universe is composed of galaxies. Galaxies organized themselves around black holes and solar systems. Solar systems organize themselves around stars and planets.

Planet Earth is a system. It has the atmosphere, the oceans, the land, and life. When you look at life, a forest is an system. An ecosystem. We, as humans, are composed of many different sub-systems. The circulatory system. The digestive system. The respiratory system, etc. And when you look closer, even the digestive system is composed of smaller sub-systems. The stomach, the liver, the pancreas, etc. And each of those organs act as systems themselves, composed of tissues and other small organisms. If you look deep enough, you'll find atoms, and now we're finding things within the atoms, particles that we don't yet fully understand. But the point I am trying to make is that everything is a system.
Everything is a system

Here a quote by Richard Feynman, the guy I talked about in episode 1: “I, a universe of atoms, an atom in the universe.” To me, that reflects the fact, the first principle, an elementary principle: one that states that matter organizes in systems.
Matter organizes in systems
Elementary Principles

So what is a system? There is the idea of the System's triad. Imagine a triangle. At the bottom, you have structure and process, and at the top, you have function.
The function is accomplished through the structure and processes.
Systems triad

So let me give you an example of such a system - the respiratory system. The lungs have tiny air sacs, the valve that allows air in and prevent food from going in, then your nose which has access to air. That is the structure of the respiratory system.
You expand your belly and your chest to expand the lungs, creating a pressure difference that sends air in and out of the lungs; to inhale or exhale. That is the process of the respiratory system.
And what function does it achieve? It has a dual function to send oxygen in, and send carbon dioxide out of the blood. Remove either the structure or the process of breathing, lungs do not achieve their functions.
Systems functions are accomplished through the structure and processes (form)

The respiratory system is interconnected to the circulatory systems that sends the bloods to the different parts of the body that needs it. And the circulatory system is connected to digestive system to send nutrients and into the blood.
Systems are interconnected

But if the respiratory system was not connected to the other systems, then the system is worthless. It's the interactions between systems that makes the larger system work - the human in this case. The system is always more than the sum of its parts.
Systems are more than the sum of its parts

There are multiple types of systems. There are the simple or ordered systems that have easy to understand cause and effect - like a thermostat. Those can be more or less complicated, complicated here defined as the number of parts and interactions.
Then there are complex systems that have many interactive parts, and the cause and effect is only visible in hindsight- after the facts. These complex systems are not linear meaning that a small change can lead to large impacts, or large changes can have little impact. These complex systems adapt to its stimuli and environment. A good example of this is the human being.
Then we have chaotic systems. Those have no discernible cause-and-effect and they are highly sensitive to initial conditions. The butterfly effect comes from chaotic systems. Patterns can be observable but over long periods of time. A good example is the weather or the stock market.

Now, I want to focus on complex systems because that's what most real-life systems are, and because they are complex, making them hard to understand. And let's go back to the example of a complex system, the human body, and look at it through the eyes of a practice that has been done for literally thousands of years. And before I say what it is, I want you to think on one thing. If something has been done for thousands of years, would it make sense if that practice was not effective?

No, it wouldn't. Like the practice of bleeding people when they are sick. It didn't last very long because people realized that it was not working. But if it lasts for thousands of years, hundreds of generations, maybe, just maybe, there is a lot of wisdom, and understanding within this practice. Then let's give a quick peek into Chinese traditional medicine. Chinese traditional medicine has the goal to keep people in balance and harmony. It has systems of certain foods to avoid or to favor depending on what build your body has. There is a common misconception about Chinese traditional medicine and it is that it aims to find the root cause. That's not the case. It's not the goal. It is to find balance and harmony across the interconnected systems in our bodies. Instead of isolating a single root cause, it's trying to look at patterns from the symptoms you experience. Everything is connected. Our diets, environments, our relationships, our work. So the goal is to find patterns of behavior that lead to disharmony instead of looking at causes. You don't need to find the cause because the cause is multiple factors acting together, and given a set of different factors, you could get the same symptom. So if you are fatigued, it could be because you eat you too much sugar, or don't exercise enough, or feel stressed and don't have good sleep. So identifying what you do that is not balanced and adjusting your behavior is how you find harmony again. Just changing one thing, like avoiding gluten because you feel fatigued may help, but it may not if there are other contributing factors. It's by working on multiple things at once, in small doses that you reach back harmony. You find balance and harmony not by treating a singular cause, but by balancing the whole system.
Systems are complex, not linear
Systems are about balance

That is a completely different way of thinking about the human body than modern medicine that aims to find causes to the symptoms, and then we either address the cause or address the symptom by taking medicine. Modern medicine works, most of the time. Sometimes there will be a singular cause, like being lactose intolerant. But other complex issues like digestive issues, mental health, fatigue, all of those are complex problems and modern medicine is actually not good at dealing with those. Why? Because it assumes a simple system, not a complex one. Complex problems should be solved with complex systems in mind. That means that small changes can have large impacts and large changes can have little impacts. But that doesn't discard modern medicine, instead it suggest that they can complement each other, depending on the type of issue that you're facing.
Systems can solve large scale and complex problems

Another distinction between simple and complex systems is that simple systems can be optimized, but complex system cannot. You cannot 'optimize' your life to be healthy. You can only balance it. Because it interacts with its environment, the conditions are always changing and thus optimization does not work. Conditions are not only always changing, they are not predictable.
Systems should not be optimized
Systems are never fully predictable

You know what else is not predictable? The next thought you will have. We'll look at our brain as a complex system. We've mentioned the structure and processes of systems accomplishing functions. For complex systems, the structure is a network. The same is true for our brains and how we think. But before we dive into the brain, let's look at an example to make sense of network structure.

Imagine a knowledge base, a large library. You have one million books that you have to organize with the goal to easily find books again. You can categorize by author last name, but then, you might only be able to find authors that you know. And what if one author has written on many different topics? Instead you can organize the books by topics, and sub-topics, but who gets to decide what goes where? But the point is that you ask 100 different librarian, and they'll all going to come up with a different system to organize these books. That means that the organization system is not intuitive. And if you add another million books, can the current system accommodate that? Will there be too many books in the same sub-topic, making the sub-topics not very useful at all? Or will there be so many sub-topics that it will be hard for you to know whether a book belongs in one or another? The categorization system is that case can become so heavy to navigate and management that it has little value, and it looses value as you add books and categories because it gets harder for you to find the book you're looking for.

Now, let's compare to another type of organization for knowledge base, a network - in this case wikipedia. Wikipedia are small chunks of knowledge, all linked together. There's a game that people play, called the wikipedia game, and the goal is to go from one page to another, only following the links. For example, try to go from the French revolution to wildfire. In fact, I just tried it, and it took me 1 minutes 34 seconds. But how many wikipedia articles are there? Millions. How was able to find it so easily? Because I know what is connected to wildfires. I went to revolution, scientific revolution, science, ecosystem, and then wildfire. But I could have used many different ways to get to the same place.
Systems have a network structure

Unlike what you can do in a library. This example is to show you that networks become more valuable as they grow. They are more useful. And on the opposite, hierarchy, like the library, because less useful as they grow.
You can become good at the game by knowing which of the nodes in the network lead you to many different spots within the network. You can find things easily because things are interconnected.
A network becomes more valuable as it grows

Now, returning to the brain, it is structured as a network. Our memories are linked to one another. When you remember an event of when you were a kid, a bunch of other memories pop into mind. Remembering the name of someone is easier once you know the first letter of their name. Links and nodes are only possible through language. Without language, you don't create as strong connections because language is the thing that links all your memories and knowledge together. Language can use logic to link all those together.

But just like wikipedia, pages at looked at a lot more than others. And some links from one page to the other are used more often. Same is true for the brain. And the brain is smart. It likes to make things easy for us, so the links in our minds get stronger the more we use them. Think of remembering someone's name. The more you hear their name, or try to recall their name, the easier it will get for you to remember their name. If you associate someone to an activity, like Chris likes to play volleyball, then you might think of Chris when you see someone playing volleyball. If you associate Friday night with a glass of wine, then comes Friday night, you will be thinking about your wine. These are habits and they are true for everything we do often in life. They get easier the more we do of it. Driving is a hugely complex task. You have to remember the rules, adjust your speed to your environment, you need to constantly pay attention, move your hands on the driving wheel, and your feet on the accelerator or brakes. Everyone had difficulty driving for the first time in their life. But over time, it becomes effortless. You don't even have to think about it. You can employ this to develop good habits, and get rid of old ones. I'll let you figure this out for yourself.
A habit is a mental process
Things are easy when you have solid process

Moving from away from the brain now, and into an example: Shipping containers.
At first glance, the idea is simple. A standardized, reusable metal box for transporting goods. But when shipping containers first appeared, they didn’t really work. People mixed them with other types of containers, which made stacking messy. They didn’t fit neatly on ships, they were heavy and awkward to move, and ports weren’t designed for them.

But here’s where systems thinking comes in. The value of shipping containers only took off once the entire system adapted. Ships were redesigned to maximize how many containers they could hold. Ports developed cranes and tools to move them efficiently. Trucks and trains were built to carry them seamlessly. And once everyone started using the same format, the system clicked — and global trade was transformed.

There’s a lesson here: systems succeed or fail at the system level, not the part level. A single container doesn’t change much on its own. But when the nodes (ports, ships, trucks) and the links (the processes connecting them) evolve together, the whole system succeeds.
System succeed or fail at the system level

I try to remember this in daily life too. When I’m stuck in traffic, waiting in line because of bureaucracy, or frustrated by how slow a hospital is, I remind myself: it’s not the person’s fault. It’s the system’s fault. The cashier, the nurse, the clerk — they’re caught in the system just like I am.

And that’s important to understand, because human-created systems surround us. Society itself is a system made up of subsystems: economic, political, educational, healthcare. They may seem abstract, but they’re real — they shape us, and we shape them.

I could spend twelve episodes just unpacking systems, but here I just wanted to give you an overview. We’ll revisit them in future episodes. For now, I hope this gave you a foundation to start seeing the world through a systems lens.

Let me wrap up by doing a recap on systems thinking. It helps us solve complex problems using complex systems in mind. Like Chinese traditional medicine, instead of trying to find the causes of problems, we need to find patterns of behavior of the system and act on those in a systematic way. Meaningful change requires system-level adaptation.
For your personal life, start thinking about what you assume have a singular cause, and challenge that idea by considering if it is a complex system. Start thinking about complex problems using complex systems in mind. Think about your health, society. And for the purpose of this course, think about how you think.

3 - Why complex problems are solved by complex systems
Systems thinking