Spectral lines: On systems thinking

At times it seems the world is populated by two types of folks, systems thinkers and artists. Artists, the theory goes, act only upon instinct, while systems thinkers act logically or not at all. One might suppose that engineers (and physical scientists) are, per se, systems thinkers. Not so. There's a bit of artist in all of us, and some engineers, alas, appear to do their best work in a disorganized, unsystematic, and chaotic mode. Perhaps they are the geniuses among us. And a surprising number of others eschew even the simplest of systems methods (a checklist for the day's chores, for example).