If you want to understand the deepest malfunctions of systems, pay attention to the rules, and to who has power over them.
Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System — The Donella Meadows Institute
Probably some of the best systems theory I’ve read in a while. There is so much overlap between how the author looks at things and how game designers do, it’s eerie. Many of the suggestions here could be modeled with Machinations, in fact.
