Virtual Domain-driven design See the Forest for the Trees - Trond Hjorteland
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Nov 7, 2025 
Trond Hjorteland, a Senior IT consultant and sociotechnical practitioner, dives into systems thinking, emphasizing the importance of seeing the bigger picture in complex software environments. He discusses how reductionism limits our understanding by isolating parts instead of viewing the whole system. Trond highlights the significance of synthesis over pure analysis and the need for diverse collaboration to tackle complexity. He explores various systems theories and suggests practical methods for enhancing team dynamics and achieving organizational goals.
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Reductionism Breaks System Understanding
- Engineers default to reductionism and jump to solutions by focusing on parts, not the whole.
- Systems thinking warns that analyzing parts alone can destroy the system you try to understand.
Start With Context Then Drill Down
- Start with synthesis: lift to the containing whole and understand context before diving into parts.
- Iterate between synthesis (understand) and analysis (know) rather than only analyzing first.
Open Systems Defeat Linear Causality
- Real-world systems are open and affected by many interacting causes rather than single linear causes.
- Understanding emerges from interacting with the system in its environment, not isolating it in a lab.
