{"id":16497,"date":"2020-10-26T10:07:15","date_gmt":"2020-10-26T14:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=16497"},"modified":"2020-10-31T23:28:58","modified_gmt":"2020-11-01T03:28:58","slug":"the-systems-thinker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-systems-thinker\/","title":{"rendered":"The Systems Thinker: Why They See Things Differently"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Do you want to know how to become a systems thinker? How is the systems thinker different than other types of thinkers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The systems thinker is able to look at all things as the system. Many things in our lives already work as systems, but the systems thinker can apply to concepts of systems to other processes to help them work better. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read more about becoming &#8220;the systems thinker&#8221; and how to improve your system thinking skills. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Becoming The Systems Thinker<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Before you eagerly dive in and try to repair a system, make sure you understand it well first. This will help you learn how to become a systems thinker. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Stop and Watch<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>We all have our favorite assumptions about how things work, and how problems should be fixed. To truly understand a system, we have to discard these and start from scratch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To understand a system, first watch to see how it behaves. Get a sense of its beat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This doesn\u2019t necessarily mean stopping and watching it in real-time. Rather:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Research its history. How did this system get here?<\/li><li>Get data. Chart important metrics over time, and tease out their relationships with each other<\/li><li>Ask people in the system what\u2019s happened (while being wary of accepting anyone\u2019s beliefs too quickly)<\/li><li>Ask questions. What\u2019s working well in the system? What\u2019s working poorly?<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Appreciate the Unquantifiables<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Our modern industrial society obsesses over things that are quantifiable. Find how to express things in numbers, then make the good numbers go up. (Shortform note: This is another paradigm we tend to accept without thinking about it.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In your system model, don\u2019t ignore the unquantifiables. These might drive actors in the system as strongly as the quantifiables, and omitting them will lead to an incomplete model. These unquantifiables might include things like:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Human dignity<\/li><li>Contentment in life<\/li><li>Hope and inspiration<\/li><li>National pride<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>If you want to build a quantitative system model, you may need to put your unquantifiable onto a quantitative scale (such as measuring human dignity on a scale of 1 to 10).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The Systems Thinker Expands Their Boundaries<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>As discussed earlier, we are prone to drawing artificially narrow boundaries when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-do-systems-work\/\">understanding systems<\/a>. To really appreciate a system\u2019s complexity and guide it to a good outcome, you\u2019ll need to relentlessly expand the boundaries by which you <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/perception-of-the-world\/\">perceive the world<\/a>. The system thinker does the following: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Expand Your Boundaries of Time<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>As a society, we tend to fixate on the short-term. In how few years can this investment pay off? How do we get faster growth, sooner?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Systems, of course, can persist over decades, centuries, and much longer time scales. Focusing on the short-term is like hiking a treacherous path by staring down at your feet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Instead, try thinking in centuries. How will this system behave 10 generations from now? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/system-behavior\/\">System behavior<\/a> 10 generations in the past affects your life today; system behavior today will affect lives 10 generations from now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Expand Your Boundaries of Intellectual Disciplines<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>In order to learn how to become a systems thinker,  and to make sense of a complex world, you\u2019ll need to understand more disciplines beyond your major in college, your current profession, and what you\u2019re comfortable with. You\u2019ll need to seek wisdom in psychology, economics, biology, the arts, religion, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As you learn from these other disciplines, be aware that its practitioners see the world through their own lenses and draw their own boundaries. As an interdisciplinary thinker, you will need to hurdle these boundaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Expand Your Boundaries of Caring<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-push-yourself\/\">Push yourself<\/a> to care about more than you naturally do. The system is a cohesive whole and requires its parts to function properly. Your liver wouldn\u2019t succeed if your heart failed, and vice versa. Likewise, the rich wouldn\u2019t succeed if the poor failed; your country wouldn\u2019t succeed if its neighbor failed; the world wouldn\u2019t succeed if its natural ecosystems failed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Articulate Your Model, Get Feedback, and Improve<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>As you understand a system, put pen to paper and draw a system diagram. Put into place the system elements and show how they interconnect. Draw the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/feedback-loop-meaning\/\">feedback loops<\/a> (both balancing and reinforcing), find the delays. Articulate the system\u2019s goals and paradigms. The systems thinker does all these things. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Drawing your system diagram makes explicit your assumptions about the system and how it works.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Next, expose this model to other credible people and invite their feedback. They will <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/challenge-your-assumptions\/\">question your assumptions<\/a> and push you to improve your understanding. You will have to admit your mistakes, redraw your model, and this trains your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/mental-flexibility\/\">mental flexibility<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You will get many contradictory ideas. Be able to hold these in your head at the same time, rather than fixating on your favorite one. Rule out ideas only until you have enough evidence to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Understand the Limits of Understanding<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>The allure of systems thinking is to gain a superpower to predict the world and to control it. Believing this is a great mistake. The world is complex, and many parts of it elude understanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But you can still play a role. You can\u2019t predict a system exactly, but you can guide it to a good direction. You can\u2019t control a system, but you can influence its design and evolution. The systems thinker is able to achieve this. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do you want to know how to become a systems thinker? How is the systems thinker different than other types of thinkers. The systems thinker is able to look at all things as the system. Many things in our lives already work as systems, but the systems thinker can apply to concepts of systems to other processes to help them work better. Read more about becoming &#8220;the systems thinker&#8221; and how to improve your system thinking skills.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":16504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,79,14],"tags":[139],"class_list":["post-16497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-communication","category-entrepreneurship","category-management","tag-thinking-in-systems","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Systems Thinker: Why They See Things Differently - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The &quot;systems thinker&quot; is different from other thinkers. Systems thinkers view all interconnected parts as one and find ways to improve them.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-systems-thinker\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Systems Thinker: Why They See Things Differently\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The &quot;systems thinker&quot; is different from other thinkers. Systems thinkers view all interconnected parts as one and find ways to improve them.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-systems-thinker\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-10-26T14:07:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-11-01T03:28:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/the-systems-thinker-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Carrie Cabral\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Carrie Cabral\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-systems-thinker\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-systems-thinker\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Carrie Cabral\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2ababb7c63a94ff5d2190f71dc417d56\"},\"headline\":\"The Systems Thinker: Why They See Things Differently\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-10-26T14:07:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-11-01T03:28:58+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-systems-thinker\/\"},\"wordCount\":897,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-systems-thinker\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/the-systems-thinker-scaled.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Thinking in Systems\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Communication\",\"Entrepreneurship\",\"Management\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-systems-thinker\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-systems-thinker\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-systems-thinker\/\",\"name\":\"The Systems Thinker: Why They See Things Differently - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-systems-thinker\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-systems-thinker\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/the-systems-thinker-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-10-26T14:07:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-11-01T03:28:58+00:00\",\"description\":\"The \\\"systems thinker\\\" is different from other thinkers. Systems thinkers view all interconnected parts as one and find ways to improve them.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-systems-thinker\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-systems-thinker\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-systems-thinker\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/the-systems-thinker-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/the-systems-thinker-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1707},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-systems-thinker\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Systems Thinker: Why They See Things Differently\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"description\":\"The World&#039;s Best Book Summaries\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":74,\"caption\":\"Shortform Books\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2ababb7c63a94ff5d2190f71dc417d56\",\"name\":\"Carrie Cabral\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e9aea3c95254368e6bf388b046b35bacb82e4167f4c62c0813620e3a4ec51126?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e9aea3c95254368e6bf388b046b35bacb82e4167f4c62c0813620e3a4ec51126?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Carrie Cabral\"},\"description\":\"Carrie has been reading and writing for as long as she can remember, and has always been open to reading anything put in front of her. She wrote her first short story at the age of six, about a lost dog who meets animal friends on his journey home. Surprisingly, it was never picked up by any major publishers, but did spark her passion for books. Carrie worked in book publishing for several years before getting an MFA in Creative Writing. She especially loves literary fiction, historical fiction, and social, cultural, and historical nonfiction that gets into the weeds of daily life.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/carrie\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Systems Thinker: Why They See Things Differently - Shortform Books","description":"The \"systems thinker\" is different from other thinkers. Systems thinkers view all interconnected parts as one and find ways to improve them.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-systems-thinker\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Systems Thinker: Why They See Things Differently","og_description":"The \"systems thinker\" is different from other thinkers. Systems thinkers view all interconnected parts as one and find ways to improve them.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-systems-thinker\/","og_site_name":"Shortform Books","article_published_time":"2020-10-26T14:07:15+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-11-01T03:28:58+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1707,"url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/the-systems-thinker-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Carrie Cabral","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Carrie Cabral","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-systems-thinker\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-systems-thinker\/"},"author":{"name":"Carrie Cabral","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2ababb7c63a94ff5d2190f71dc417d56"},"headline":"The Systems Thinker: Why They See Things Differently","datePublished":"2020-10-26T14:07:15+00:00","dateModified":"2020-11-01T03:28:58+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-systems-thinker\/"},"wordCount":897,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-systems-thinker\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/the-systems-thinker-scaled.jpg","keywords":["Thinking in Systems"],"articleSection":["Communication","Entrepreneurship","Management"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-systems-thinker\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-systems-thinker\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-systems-thinker\/","name":"The Systems Thinker: Why They See Things Differently - Shortform Books","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-systems-thinker\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-systems-thinker\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/the-systems-thinker-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2020-10-26T14:07:15+00:00","dateModified":"2020-11-01T03:28:58+00:00","description":"The \"systems thinker\" is different from other thinkers. Systems thinkers view all interconnected parts as one and find ways to improve them.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-systems-thinker\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-systems-thinker\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-systems-thinker\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/the-systems-thinker-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/the-systems-thinker-scaled.jpg","width":2560,"height":1707},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-systems-thinker\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Systems Thinker: Why They See Things Differently"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","name":"Shortform Books","description":"The World&#039;s Best Book Summaries","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Shortform Books","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","width":500,"height":74,"caption":"Shortform Books"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2ababb7c63a94ff5d2190f71dc417d56","name":"Carrie Cabral","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e9aea3c95254368e6bf388b046b35bacb82e4167f4c62c0813620e3a4ec51126?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e9aea3c95254368e6bf388b046b35bacb82e4167f4c62c0813620e3a4ec51126?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Carrie Cabral"},"description":"Carrie has been reading and writing for as long as she can remember, and has always been open to reading anything put in front of her. She wrote her first short story at the age of six, about a lost dog who meets animal friends on his journey home. Surprisingly, it was never picked up by any major publishers, but did spark her passion for books. Carrie worked in book publishing for several years before getting an MFA in Creative Writing. She especially loves literary fiction, historical fiction, and social, cultural, and historical nonfiction that gets into the weeds of daily life.","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/carrie\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/the-systems-thinker-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16497"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17195,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16497\/revisions\/17195"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}