John Gall Quotes (1925-2014)

“Falwell generally escaped censure for such blatant contradictions because the press was often reluctant to take him to task. When his statements and motives were called into question, he has adhered to the premise that the best defense is a good offense. Instead of answering the substance of charges, Falwell would simply suggest darkly that his critics were part of a liberal conspiracy to repress the role of Christians in government. Responding to attacks on his political views in a 1976 sermon, Falwell said, "The idea that religion and politics don't mix was invented by the devil to keep Christians from running their own country."”

“Until the late 1970s, occasional antigay appeals from the right had been like valuable ores left unrefined. But the new right struck pure gold in Anita Bryant. A mother, celebrity singer, former Miss America, and spokeswoman for the Florida Citrus Growers ("A day without orange juice is like a day without sunshine"), the chirpy Bryant was the ideal model for its antigay crusade. She could safely emphasize the supposed danger the homosexual movement posed to families without appearing mean-spirited. In a 1977 fund-raising letter filled with passages underlined in red, she wrote: "Dear friend: I don't hate the homosexuals! But as a mother, I must protect my children from their evil influence. When the homosexuals burn the holy Bible in public, how can I stand by silently?" Like those of a host of her antigay successors, Bryant's fund-raising appeals would fail to identify which gays had burned a Bible or where, much less acknowledge any anger gays might justifiably harbor at what they took as her appropriating Scriptures for her own partisan political purposes.”

“The largest building in the world, the space vehicle preparation shed at Cape Kennedy, generates its own weather, including clouds and rain. This and other system principles are explained in a delightful and amusing book by John Gall (1986) entitled Systematics: The underground text of systems lore; how systems really work and how they fail, and is recommended for anyone who designs systems. One can choose to ignore the principles by which systems operate and continue to be puzzled as to why they do not seem to act as we intend, or recognize the principles and thus improve the ability to design systems that work.”

“John Gall's Systemantics: How Systems Work and Especially How They Fail has several suggestions from 1975 that are still relevant here: • In general, systems work poorly or not at all. • New system mean new problems. • Complex systems usually operate in failure mode • When a fail-safe system fails, it fails by failing to fail safe.”

“Some years ago, many problems encountered by system developers were brought together in a pithy book by John Gall called Systemantics (Gall 1975). The book applies equally to computer systems and to the encompassing systems of coordinated human enterprise. The book's style is droll but its purpose is serious; it should be required reading. Among the many important rules and admonitions the book advances are several worth repeating here for anyone contemplating biodiversity information systems development: A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be made to work. You have to start over, beginning with a working simple system In setting up a system, tread softly. You may be disturbing another system that is actually working A system can fail in an infinite number of ways In complex systems malfunction and even total nonfunction may not be detectable for a long period, if ever”

“Gall (1975) mentions numerous examples of malfunctioning systems. For example, at Cape Canaveral there is an enormous hangar that shelters the rockets being constructed. It is so large that it produces its own climate, including clouds and rain. thus, the very structure that is supposed to shelter rockets and people sprinkles them with its own rain.”

“''The following four propositions, which appears to the author to be incapable of formal proof, are presented as Fundamental Postulates upon which the entire superstructure of General Systemantics... is based... EVERY THING IS A SYSTEM EVERYTHING IS PART OF A LARGER SYSTEM ''THE UNIVERSE IS INFINITELY SYSTEMATIZABLE BOTH UPWARDS (LARGER SYSTEMS) AND DOWNWARDS (SMALLER SYSTEMS) ALL SYSTEMS ARE INFINITELY COMPLEX (The illusion of simplicity comes from focusing attention on one or a few variables.) ::::::::::::::::::::John Gall, Systematics, 1975”