Formulating a model of a system should start from the question “Where is the boundary, that encompasses the smallest number of components, within which the dynamic behavior under study is generated?

— Jay Wright Forrester, Principles of Systems (1968)

Source: http://obssr.od.nih.gov/issh/2012/files/Richardson%202011.pdf

Cited in Richardson (2011), who quotes Forrester's Principles of Systems (1968).

Topics: simplicity, complexity