Systems Thinking Lessons of Our Age: Networks
The most visible systems lesson from virus spreads is related to networks if we know how to see them.
In the early 1980s Faberge Organics Shampoo (the stuff Steve, the character in the Netflix show Stranger Things uses to get his hair so ‘perfect’) ran advertisements that used network theory to serve as a prop for how things — like recommendations for hair care products — spread between people. The movie Wayne’s World even featured a spoof of it. (see below)
Spread (even the term ‘going viral’) is having new meaning for people as the world wrestles with the complications of a real virus moving across the planet.
This third is a series of lessons on systems thinking and our present-day is not a lesson in public health epidemiology, but on the central feature behind viral spread: networks. More specifically, social networks (and no, it’s not just about Facebook or social media).
Networks: How We Connect
Networks are the central mechanism for understanding human connection at a social scale. Whether it’s small groups…
