Balancing vs reinforcing feedback loops
Summary
- Balancing feedback loops help a state move towards an equilibrium.
- Reinforcing loops amplify a process
Details
- A thermostat is a balancing loop: when the temp is too hot it turns on AC, when too cold it turns on the furnace.
- A fashion trend or poverty cycle is a reinforcing loop. You can only get out of it if you do something unusual
- Being aware of feedback loops allow us to improve in our next iteration
References
Quotes
There are two basic types of feedback loops: balancing and reinforcing, which are also called negative and positive. Balancing feedback loops tend toward an equilibrium, while reinforcing feedback loops amplify a particular process. Your thermostat and heating system run on a balancing feedback loop. Information about the temperature of the house is communicated to the thermostat, which then adjusts the output of the furnace to maintain your desired temperature. Reinforcing feedback loops don’t counter change, like your thermostat does. Instead they keep the change going, as with the popularity of trends in fashion or the loops usually involved in poverty. Breaking out of reinforcing loops often requires outside intervention or a new change in conditions. Or they burn themselves out.
We learn from our efforts. Our first try at anything is rarely any good, but the experience of trying gives us feedback. If we pay attention to it, this feedback can help us improve in our next effort. Through many iterations, by paying attention to and incorporating feedback, we end up becoming more capable. Too often we remove the learning process, including the inevitable failures and disappointments, in success stories. In particular, when it comes to artistic creation, we look at the final product of a painting or piece of music without seeing all of the iterations that came before.