Summary

The video idea is about systems thinking, which is the concept of how interactions can cause significant effects. The thesis of the video is based on a quote from Russell Acoff, which states that a system is not the sum of its parts, but the product of their interaction. The video uses the game Magic the Gathering to demonstrate how systems thinking works.

The concept of sequencing is also discussed, which is the idea of arranging tasks in a specific order to achieve maximum efficiency. The speaker discusses the importance of sequencing decisions and systems thinking in various aspects of life. By making small sequencing decisions, one can vastly affect the outcome of a game, day, or anything.

Nearly everything in life can be thought of as a system, and by identifying the variables and aspects that one has control over, they can focus on what they can influence and not stress over what they cannot control.

Transcript

So I've got an idea for a video about systems thinking, which is a concept that I've wanted to teach on my YouTube channel for quite some time, but I never really had enough good examples or an overall thesis to come up with a good video idea until now. And I kind of want the thesis of the video to hinge on this quote from the management consultant Russell Acoff, who said, and I'm kind of paraphrasing here, a system is not the sum of its parts, it's the product of their interaction. And I think that is the key insight into understanding systems thinking.

A system is not just the sum of its parts, it is how they interact and what comes about through their interaction. We often have this saying that one plus one can equal three. And this is kind of what that saying is referring to.

Basically if you're taking a sum, you would get one and one and that would make two. But if one of your ones does one thing, and the other of your ones does another thing, and those two things interact in such a way that they generate additional value, then you can have truly one plus one equals three. So that's sort of the first concept that I would like to teach in a video on systems thinking.

And because I am a massive nerd, a great example that I will use in this video is the game Magic the Gathering. I think that game has a lot of great potential examples that we can create and set up where we can literally demonstrate systems thinking and how interactions can cause very big effects in an easy to understand way. So for one example, and this is going to involve some cards that people may not be familiar with, but when we're making a video, we can easily do visual examples and explain things.

We have a three card combo. We have one card called scurry oak. And when a plus one plus one counter is placed on scurry oak, you can make a one one squirrel token.

So that's one piece of a system that we might be building. This piece can make squirrels. Another piece is a card called Cathar's Crusade.

And Cathar's Crusade says, whenever you gain life, put a plus one plus one counter on each creature you control. So there's another part of our system. And already you can start to see the interactions that might happen between these two cards.

If I somehow were to gain life, and we'll cover that in a second, then Cathar's Crusade's ability is going to trigger and I'm going to get a plus one plus one counter on each creature I control, including my scurry oak. Once the plus one plus one counter is placed on scurry oak, its ability will trigger and I will get a squirrel. Now we can add one more piece to this puzzle.

A creature called Soulwarden says whenever another creature enters the battlefield, you gain one life. So when I get my squirrel token, I gain a life. And you can probably see where this is going.

When I gain a life, Cathar's Crusade allows me to put a one one counter on my scurry oak, which makes a squirrel, which gains me a life. And before you know it, three simple pieces have formed a system that gains me infinite life, infinite squirrels, and makes my scurry oak infinitely large. That is what we mean when we say that a system is not the sum of its parts, but the product of their interactions.

Because you have these three pieces put together in a group that we will call a system, and together they create something, in this case, infinitely massive. In fact, three effects that are infinitely massive. Take even one piece away from the system, and the resultant interactions between the remaining two are much, much smaller, in this case, infinitely smaller.

So that is what we mean when we say one plus one, in this case, one plus one plus one equals infinity. Or, simply put, one plus one can equal three. There are a lot of concepts to learn about systems thinking and systems design that will help you to design better systems in your life.