Our Moral Board · Influence portrait

John Richardson and John Sterman

An influence portrait of two distinct teaching and scholarly relationships through which systems thinking and system dynamics shaped Moses’s approach to complex public problems.

Their influence supplies a methodological discipline: define the problem, map feedback and delay, test assumptions, and expect interventions in complex systems to create consequences beyond their immediate intent.

system dynamicsfeedbackcomplexitypolicy modelingsystems awarenessintellectual humilityproblem orientation

Influence portrait

An idea can shape a lineage. It cannot hold a human identity.

Provenance

sourced fact

Richardson taught Dynamic Modeling of Public Policy Systems at the Lee Kuan Yew School; Sterman directs MIT’s System Dynamics Group and wrote Business Dynamics. The Gratitude essay identifies both as separate influences on Moses.

Embracing Complexity: How System Dynamics Shaped My Path John Richardson — American University John D. Sterman — MIT Sloan

Core ideas

sourced fact

System dynamics uses simulation, feedback, stocks, flows, delays, and circular causality to investigate changing behavior in complex social, managerial, economic, and ecological problems.

What is System Dynamics?John D. Sterman — MIT Sloan All Models Are Wrong: Reflections on Becoming a Systems Scientist

Moral themes

editorial interpretation

The method encourages humility about prediction, responsibility for unintended consequences, and attention to relationships that are obscured when a problem is reduced to isolated events.

Embracing Complexity: How System Dynamics Shaped My Path All Models Are Wrong: Reflections on Becoming a Systems Scientist What is System Dynamics?

Defining influence

editorial interpretation

Richardson’s problem-centered teaching and Sterman’s modeling scholarship together gave Moses a way to move from observing complexity to building explicit, revisable accounts of it.

Embracing Complexity: How System Dynamics Shaped My Path John Richardson — American University John D. Sterman — MIT Sloan All Models Are Wrong: Reflections on Becoming a Systems Scientist

Tensions and critique

editorial interpretation

Models are selective representations, not the systems themselves. Their usefulness depends on boundary choices, assumptions, data, validation, and whether affected people can challenge the framing.

All Models Are Wrong: Reflections on Becoming a Systems Scientist What is System Dynamics?

Relationship to the Internet of Value

editorial interpretation

System dynamics informs IoV’s research method rather than defining protocol truth: it supports explicit causal hypotheses, feedback awareness, and revision when interventions produce unexpected outcomes.

Embracing Complexity: How System Dynamics Shaped My Path All Models Are Wrong: Reflections on Becoming a Systems Scientist What is System Dynamics?

Source ledger

Read the evidence directly

gratitude essayEmbracing Complexity: How System Dynamics Shaped My Path first partyJohn Richardson — American University first partyJohn D. Sterman — MIT Sloan independent referenceWhat is System Dynamics?primary sourceAll Models Are Wrong: Reflections on Becoming a Systems Scientist

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