Paris 1874, Boulevard des Capucines: a group of artists that were to radically change the rules of the art world, Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Paul Czanne, Edgar Degas and Frdric Bazille, mounted an exhibition in the studio of photographer Flix Nadar. The exhibition proved to be a veritable scandal that filled critics with indignation, and they contemptuously labeled the paintings eoeimpressioniste because they had been badly constructed and were ambiguous. In fact, the technique they had adopted was utterly original because it entailed painting outdoorse"en plein aire"using newly available apparatus and tools such as a portable easel, ready-to-use paints in airtight tubes that came in a whole range of bright colors, and paintbrushes with broad, flat bristles held in place by a metal ring.

This book is about seeing systems. It is about overcoming system blindness and seeing our part in the context of the whole, and the present in the context of the past. It is about seeing ourselves in relationship with others and creating satisfying and productive partnerships in these relationships. It will enable us to create systems with extraordinary capacities for surviving and developing. "Oshry weaves a remarkable explanation for the subtle, and largely unseen ways in which our structures influence our behaviour."Marvin Weisbord, author Productive Workplaces.

How to use Systems Thinking to improve your business.

"I am a fanatic about freedom. And I'm fanatical about coming at you hard in this book." Maybe you're not as free as you think you are. Even worse, you may have been duped into believing that a "balanced" life is the key to happiness (it isn't) or that a relationship with God is about layering on rules and restrictions (nope). Whether it’s media-fueled fear, something a parent or teacher said that you just can’t shake, or even the reality of dark spiritual forces bent on keeping you down, something is holding you back from the full-on freedom God intends for you. The Bible says, "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." Not fear. Not guilt. Not morality. Freedom. You can have the sort of joy you thought only kids could have. The day of freedom is here.

The first volume to integrate life's biological, cognitive, social, and ecological dimensions into a single, coherent framework.

The classic book on systems thinking—with more than half a million copies sold worldwide! "This is a fabulous book... This book opened my mind and reshaped the way I think about investing."—Forbes "Thinking in Systems is required reading for anyone hoping to run a successful company, community, or country. Learning how to think in systems is now part of change-agent literacy. And this is the best book of its kind."—Hunter Lovins In the years following her role as the lead author of the international bestseller, Limits to Growth—the first book to show the consequences of unchecked growth on a finite planet—Donella Meadows remained a pioneer of environmental and social analysis until her untimely death in 2001. Thinking in Systems is a concise and crucial book offering insight for problem solving on scales ranging from the personal to the global. Edited by the Sustainability Institute’s Diana Wright, this essential primer brings systems thinking out of the realm of computers and equations and into the tangible world, showing readers how to develop the systems-thinking skills that thought leaders across the globe consider critical for 21st-century life. Some of the biggest problems facing the world—war, hunger, poverty, and environmental degradation—are essentially system failures. They cannot be solved by fixing one piece in isolation from the others, because even seemingly minor details have enormous power to undermine the best efforts of too-narrow thinking. While readers will learn the conceptual tools and methods of systems thinking, the heart of the book is grander than methodology. Donella Meadows was known as much for nurturing positive outcomes as she was for delving into the science behind global dilemmas. She reminds readers to pay attention to what is important, not just what is quantifiable, to stay humble, and to stay a learner. In a world growing ever more complicated, crowded, and interdependent, Thinking in Systems helps readers avoid confusion and helplessness, the first step toward finding proactive and effective solutions.

The first comprehensive guide to building successful User Interfaces using the .NET Framework