stocks and flows

Planted May 2021 Tended 5 years ago Linked from 7 notes

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Alongside Causal loop diagrams, another way to model the outward behavior and internal state of a system is with stocks (also called “accumulators”) and flows (also called “rates”)

  • Stocks are anything than can be accumulate and be measured: the temperature (amount of heat) in a room, the balance in a bank account, or even abstract concepts like “customer satisfaction” (which are often measured with a net-promoter score).
  • Flows are things that change the level of a stock. For example, a bathtub has a stock of water and two flows—the inflow of water from the faucet and the outflow of water from its drain—whose rates determine the stock (or level) of water in the tub.

Further Reading