Making connections – the rain drop model

In 2016 I gave my first talk at a testing conference – TestBash Brighton. The topic was about the power of ignorance. One model that I tried to convey back then was the rain drop model. Based on the concentric circles that rain drops produce on the water surface. Each rain drop stands for a particular topic or system. The growing circle demonstrates the growth of knowledge. And it visualizes wonderfully how certain circles start to intersect.

I am able to see this model in action. My daughter is well into her teenage years now. For at least six or seven years she loved the audio books of German author Marc-Uwe Kling about the adventures of living with a communist kangaroo. In the beginning it was purely because of the funny voices and some simple jokes. The books go rather deep in many aspects around politics, culture, economics, history and so many more topics. It’s four books with many small chapters, that help more or less with the overarching plot.

My daughter learned in school more about history, economics, politics, etc. Some topics we explained to her, if she wanted or not. Every time we listen to a few chapters again you see the Eureka! moments in her eyes. She makes more and more of the connections of complex topics. And thanks to the kangaroo she is able to memorize some of these topics better.

Imagine all these circles as systems. And the more you learn about each system, your knowledge grows. You learn about more than one system all the time. So have several growing knowledge circles. And from time to time these circles start to intersect. That is the moment when two system become one. You finally see the interconnection. And then you cannot unsee it anymore.

These Eureka! moments when you spot another connection of two systems that you thought were not connected. And then you see more complex dependencies. When a system that started to intersect on “one side” with another system, that also intersects with something that was formerly another distinct system. So not only does system A have a dependency with system B. Due to system B having a dependency with system C, there might be dependencies between A and C as well. And so the knowledge and understanding of the world grows.

It’s these moments when you hear or read something, where bits and pieces of one system are mentioned in the context of a completely different system. And then you connect the dots. And with the new knowledge you start explaining things that you could not before.

When you read about certain historic events and now current events make more sense. When you understand some chemical or physical process, and suddenly certain applications make sense. Maybe you look into a machine to understand what it does, and now the process it supports makes more sense. When you look at a piece of code, and you finally understand why that bug happens in certain situations.

Practice your systems thinking, connect the dots, understand the intertwinedness of the world. The world is complex and many things are more connected than we might initially think. Try to understand these connections, and the world becomes a place you might better understand. Gaining that knowledge doesn’t mean the world becomes a better place. And your frustration with humans will grow. But at least you know why.

Stay curious!