I wrote about Donella Meadows's ideas on feedback loops and delays. The next concept that interests me is her work on leverage points.

Meadows described leverage points as places within a system where an intervention can change how the system behaves. But not every intervention has the same influence.

Of the 12 leverage points she identified, the structure of information flows caught my attention.

The idea is that changing who has access to information, and how that information reaches them, can influence how a system behaves.

I experienced this firsthand through my trading journal practice.

One of my recurring trading weaknesses was what I call fear of profit.

When a position became profitable, I often found reasons to take profit early. I made decisions on the fly instead of following my original plan.

Each decision seemed reasonable at the time. But over the long term, this affected my trading performance and profitability.

I recorded these decisions in my notes. When I reviewed them, a pattern became obvious. I wasn't always following my plan as I thought I was. I was finding reasons to justify early exits.

The same pattern kept showing up in the performance metrics on my trading journal app's dashboard. It was information I already had in my notes, but the dashboard made it harder to overlook.

Over time, something interesting happened.

Whenever I felt the urge to take profit early, I started recognizing the behavior while it was happening.

What kept showing up on the dashboard stayed in my mind.

Of course, awareness didn't eliminate the problem overnight. But it made me stop and think before repeating the same mistake. It became part of my trading improvement process.

I hadn't changed my trading strategy. What changed was the information I was paying attention to.

A Question Worth Asking

This experience made me think about how I build tools and systems.

Whether it is a trading journal, a personal knowledge management system, or a weekly review, the value isn't simply in how much information we collect.

It's whether that information helps us recognize something we couldn't see before.

So, what information could we make more visible in our workflows or systems to help us recognize recurring behaviors and make better decisions?

Until next time, keep learning.
Gav