An Introduction to General Systems Thinking

is an excellent book by Jerry Weinberg (isbn 0-932633-49-8). As usual I'm going to quote from a few pages. I know I've snippeted this book before, but I read it again and a really good book deserves a repeat snippet.

The average scientist is good for at most one revolution.

"Proof" in its original sense was a test applied to substances to determine if they are of satisfactory quality... Over the centuries, the meaning of the word "prove" began to shift, eliminating the negative possibilities...

They know "better" - which is to say that their illusion is stronger.

We drive more slowly at night to give us more time to observe potentially dangerous situations.

More probable states are more likely to be observed than less probable states, unless specific constraints exist to keep them from occurring.

Things we see more frequently are more frequent: 1. because there is some physical reason to favor certain states, or 2. because there is some mental reason.

The Axiom of Experience can, like all of our principles, be turned around, to become a definition of what we mean by the word "like": Two things are alike if one in the present can be substituted for one in the past.

a "boundary" may not be infinitely thin, precisely so it can partake of both system and environment. Rather than separating, such a boundary connects.

We can learn, if nothing else, proper caution in our speech, which will inevitably lead to proper caution in our thought...