An e-mail to Jerry Weinberg, Paul Coyle and
others who may contemplate systems from time to time
By Dwayne Phillips
14 November 2006
On page 152 of "Rethinking Systems Analysis and
Design," Paul Coyle states, "Try telling the fire brigade that your
orange is on fire." This statement is part of a passage about trying to
find words that rhyme with "orange" and "chimney." Mr.
Coyle encourages that "there exists an individual who pronounces 'orange'
as 'chimney.' "(See the Reference section for more from the book.)
Well, of course I will find another culture where
'orange' is pronounced as 'chimney' and vice versa. I am confident of this
seemingly odd culture because I know that my "orange is on fire."
Try this experiment. Hold a piece of orange peel
between your thumb and pointer finger. Gently squeeze the orange peel and
notice how some liquid squirts from it. That juice must be water(?).
Now try this experiment next to an open flame. Ask
someone to hold a match next to the orange peel as you squirt liquid from it.
Another method is to squirt this liquid into the flame of a lit candle.
Aha! The liquid is inflammable, i.e. it burns. The
liquid causes the nearby flame to grow for the moment that the liquid passes
through the flame. This liquid isn't water, but some type of oil, sugar, or
alcohol (or all three) that burns.
Truly, my orange is on fire.
I have observed a few other non-sensical "my
blank is on fire" cases. One I read several years ago in Field and Stream
magazine on one of those "little tips" pages. It was a note to help
people survive who find themselves� lost in the wilderness unplanned. (This
begs the question, "Who plans to be lost in the
wilderness?") The tip was that Fritos corn
chips make great fire starters.
I had to try this experiment. I put a few Fritos
corn chips on a plate and held a match to them. They sizzled; they fried, they
burned! True to form - Field and Stream was right. Fritos corn chips are fried
in oil at the factory. They are full of inflammable oil, the corn mash acts as
a wick, and the chips burn - even when they are dampened with water.
The Fritos experiment caused me to look for other
inflammable food. I started with other corn chips. Doritos chips burn; Tostitos
chips burn; all kinds of fried chips burn. I found that even potato chips -
fried in lots of oil at the factory - burn even when wet.
Of course my orange is on fire. So is much of my
food.
Almost anyone who lived in the 1850s knew all this.
Those people would say "my orange is on fire" and "my apple is
on fire" and "my corn is on fire." People who lived 150 (plus or
minus 50) years ago knew that oil, sugar, and alcohol all burned. They didn't
have electricity. Instead, those people used any type of animal or vegetable
oil they could� put their hands on as fuel for fire. They also fermented plants
into alcohol, and alcohol burns.
So,
- searching for something that rhymes with
"orange" or "chimney",
- a parlor trick with an orange peel and a candle,
- reading Field and Stream magazine,
- burning Fritos, and
- fermenting fruit
what do these have in common?
General systems theory.
This involves the ability to connect seemingly
disconnected things. It shows what is common to an orange and a chimney. General
systems theory allows me to understand different systems in new ways. This is
more than trivia; it is a different way to think, and I can use different ways
of thinking.
As Weinberg wrote on page 151 of the text,
"...we need all the ideas we can get."
Reference:
"Rethinking Systems Analysis and Design,"
Gerald M. Weinberg, Dorset House Publishing, 1988.
On page 149, Weinberg starts the discussion of
oranges and chimneys with,
For many years now, I have been trying to find a
rhyme in English for the word orange. But many people have told me it's
impossible. I don't believe it's impossible, but I haven't yet been able to
conjure up a counterexample. While discussing this problem recently in London, a Liverpudlian said that for many years he had been seeking a rhyme for the word
chimney and considered it impossible. "In that case," I said,
"chimney 'rhymes' with orange, in the sense that they both belong to the
class of things that have no other rhymes."
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