The book "System Archetype Basics" studies 7 troublesome patterns. Here's one.

As the symptom of some problem increases, we work harder at the "fundamental solution" but also the quicker and easier "symptomatic solution". Both of these decrease the symptom of the problem. But the fundamental solution takes longer - there's a delay. Also, the symptomatic solution tends to cause a side-effect that tends to work against the fundamental solution.

The picture here is called a 'causal loop diagram' because it helps you spot feedback loops. Just find a loop in the picture and multiply the plus and minus signs around it to tell if it's a positive or a negative feedback loop!

The math of these things runs deeper than you might think. I'm talking about it at a category theory workshop in Glasgow on Monday June 2nd. It's at 2 pm UK time, and you can watch it on Zoom if you register here:

https://jademaster.xyz/TACT25.html

This workshop is being run by my former student @JadeMasterMath and it's at the University of Strathclyde, Royal College, room RC 512. My long-time n-Category Cafe co-host, the philosopher David Corfield, will be giving a talk on how modalities in homotopy type theory can be thought of as 'logical', and my friend Nathaniel Osgood will be talking about compositional modeling in public health. There are also lots of other great talks. Abstracts are here:

https://jademaster.xyz/ListOfAbstracts

and a tentative schedule is here:

https://jademaster.xyz/TACTSchedule.html

I hope to see you there, at least virtually!