Congrats, Alex! I agree with the other commentator that the smooth-sailing vs. white water rapids metaphor is easy to grasp, and works well with the idea about different types of kayaks for different types of water to talk about when you would use SD. I found the explanations of the systemics and design traditions clear and overall everything was explained in an understandable way.

I’ve heard you talk about where the two traditions of systems and design thinking come from before — here you say that we are familiar with smooth water approaches from the enlightenment and six sigma, etc. I know that I wouldn’t have been familiar with some of those origins/examples, so just wonder if others would be, as you kind of rattle them off.

The list of 11 SD traits are a lot to remember if I was new to the field and wanted to kind of keep a running track of key traits in my mind. I wonder if they could be tightened up or if a graphic would help — something that would be more sticky in the reader’s brain.

I’m not sure if you’re keeping the little graphs, but I think they’re great and helpful, and add some colour.

As someone wanting to do this work or doing this kind of work currently, I think that your nod to not-yet-being-successful is important and offers a feeling of safety and comfort to someone entering what could be an intimidating, theory-rich space. It also helps set up the reader for thinking about success & failure, setting hard objectives vs. trajectories, etc.

The call to action at the end is powerful and important, and gets people thinking about what they could be do…and it’s just the intro. As a reader, that is exciting for me.

My favourite thing you wrote was “bureaucratic permafrost.” :) Good luck!