[arch-d] Systems theory: The IETF "addicted" to "symptomatic solutions" aka "point solutions"?

On Nov 9, 2006, at 4:24, Noel Chiappa wrote:
> Until the IETF faces the reality,
> which is that customers aren't buying the IPv6 KoolAid, and makes  
> radical
> changes to it to actually make it worthwhile, that state of affairs  
> will
> continue.

This brought to my mind something that I read recently.

In the systems theory or systems dynamics, there is a behavioural  
pattern called "Shifting the Burden".  That pattern has been known  
for at least a decade, probably much longer; I'm sure some of you  
must be familiar with it.  I just haven't happened to be aware of the  
results the systems theory people have.  Anyway, here are a couple of  
articles that explain the pattern:

http://www.systems-thinking.org/theWay/ssb/sb.htm
http://www.worldtrans.org/essay/shiftingburden.html

Looking at the pattern, to me it looks pretty clear that the IETF has  
been stuck to the "symptomatic solution", failing to address the more  
fundamental problems, thereby allowing the side effects to  
accumulate.  Yes, that in itself is nothing new; it has been argued  
several times with different terms.  What was new to me is that the  
behaviour that we are seeing is common to human beings and human  
organisations, and well known in the systems theory.

What is perhaps more worrisome, at least to me, is that the "shifting  
of burden" pattern easily leads to an "addiction" pattern, where  
there becomes a dependency to the symptomatic behaviour pattern that  
further inhibits the fundamental solution; see:

http://www.systems-thinking.org/theWay/sad/ad.htm

According to systems theory, such an addiction "make the real source  
of the problem, in time, even more difficult to resolve."

Sad.

--Pekka Nikander

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