Charles Darwin’s Beagle Diary

Darwin, Charles. Edited by R. D. Keynes. 1988. Charles Darwin’s Beagle Diary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

As you would expect from one of the greatest scientists, Darwin was a remarkably keen observer. But he did not limit his observations to geology and botany. His diary includes many descriptions of the places and societies that he visited in the course of his voyage on HMS Beagle. He was also an excellent writer.

How Buildings Learn

Brand, Stewart. 1994. How Buildings Learn: What happens after they’re built. New York City: Penguin Books USA.

Although this book is about the design of buildings, it discusses many topics that are also applicable to systems engineering, including:

• Designs that meet (or ignore) user needs.
• Adaptation of designs to meet evolving user needs.
• Reuse of designs.
• Designing for maintenance.

Mindset

Dweck, Carol S. 2006. Mindset. New York City: Random House.

This book contains many thought-provoking observations. Of special interest is the discussion about the relative importance of mindset compared to innate ability in the acquisition of new skills.

Parkinson’s Law

Parkinson, C. Northcote. 2022. Parkinson’s Law and Other Studies in Administration. Dead Authors Society. (ISBN 978-1-03-496539-8. Available on Amazon.com)

Originally published in the 1950’s, this book quickly became a business classic. It was re-issued in 2022. A short book, wittily written and whimsically illustrated. The first chapter is the most famous, but the entire book is both entertaining and thought-provoking.

SysML Distilled

Delligatti, Lenny. 2014. SysML Distilled. A Brief Guide to the Systems Modeling Language. Addison-Wesley. (ISBN 978-0-321-92786-6)

If you are trying to learn SysML on your own, this is by far the best book. Comprehensive but with just the right level of detail.

The Dawn of Everything

Graeber, David and David Wengrow. 2021. The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity. New York City: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

This book examines history and anthropology to describe the many ways in which we humans have organized our societies in the past. The book does not specifically describe the various ways that businesses have been organized, but many of the examples and insights can easily be applied to the business world. This book opens up the possibility that we could design our organizations to be both more effective and more humane.

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information

Tufte, Edward R. 2001. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information Second Edition. Cheshire Connecticut: Graphics Press.

Systems engineers spend a lot of time presenting information to colleagues. This information often is most effective when shown in graphs, charts or models. This book provides many examples of both effective presentations and ineffective presentations. It contains lots of valuable insights you can use when putting together your next power point presentation or model.