The title for this section comes from George Miller’s 1956 article “The Magical Number 7, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on our Capacity for Processing Information.” The gist of his article is that we tend to comprehend the world by creating chunks of knowledge.  Each chunk, itself is composed of sub-chunks.  We can generally manage to hold about 7±2 chunks in short term memory and consciousness.  “Chunks” was the term Miller used.  A more modern term is Richard Dawkin’s [XXXX] term “meme.” Adding John Holland’s [XXXX] Theory of Genetic Algorithms gives us a mathematical treatment of what is going on and why it is so very important.  This is a critical subject for understanding human system dynamics.  I will discuss it further in the Sections on Memetics and Mimetics.  For now I will just point out that our ability to think about and understand the world depends on the number of memes we have mastered and especially the ones that point to general system principles of how the world functions.

If you wish to be an optimal change agent you must master a large number of memes that give you the ability to chunk what you see into easy to digest pieces.  Some examples of memes are

• Chunking 7±2
• The Law of Diminishing Return on Investment
• E=mc²
• "It ain't what we don't know that will cause us problem's, it's what we know that ain't so.”
• Spaghetti Coded Society
• The Orange Juice Test
• The White Bread Warning
• Positive feedback creates growth.  Negative feedback creates control and oscillation.
• People resist change.  People do not resist change.
• Sit in the brine long enough and you will get pickled.

Each of these memes are in the references I have sited.

Readings:

1. Miller, George A.  (1950).  The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on our Capacity for Processing Information.  Psychological Review, 63, 81-97.  You can also read it at http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Miller/
2. Weinberg, Gerald (19xx).  The Secrets of Consulting.  Dorset House Publishing.

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