Real World systems are Open System-s, which makes them messily non-linear.

They are also Human System-s.

This makes them like games. (There are other conditions, like having active agents, which I should explore eventually...)

I'm trying to think of most situations as games, because it reminds me that

• people who annoy me are usually just challenges/barriers, not adversaries

• fun/happiness is a reasonable objective

• rules are often arbitrary and even unofficial. You can break many rules, you can make new rules. Each is just a Game Rule.

• there's often a trick that will get you to the next level when head-banging micro-optimization will fail you.

John Taylor Gatto called education a "helix sport", where "participants search for a new relationship with themselves". Unfortunately, I can't find any other references to this phrase.

• one reference (see "Form follows sport"), focusing on "competing against the environment and ourselves", in contract to agon sports where the competition is against other people. Not as compelling a metaphor.

I'm interested in economics and business models, people-friendly local systems (architecture, urban planning, transportation, education), etc.

There are many schools of Systems Thinking. Perhaps I should think in the more general terms of Thinking Tools.

See The R I C H Economy.

I need to focus my attention on one of many possible Games To Play. But There Is But One Infinite Game.

Thinking about games can raise questions about the Nature Of Truth. And Game Theory of course.

Sometimes fuzzy discussions about real-world systems can be grounded by reference to Macro Statistics.

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