About
The Site Author
Author: Andrew Gunner
Qualifications:
- BSc. Hons. Applied Maths,
- Social Work BSW,
- MSW by research.
Experience:
- worked briefly at the Bureau of Meteorology; my applied maths qualified me to become a climate scientist,
- worked in a geophysics research team in Antarctic waters on a ship, the USNS Eltanin,
- worked for a petrol company and a petrochemical company for 20 years as an operations researcher, using maths and computers to guide decision making,
- demonstrated from a rubber raft during the Franklin River Blockade,
- studied social work,
- worked as a counsellor for 17 years, including ten years as an addiction counsellor, working with problem gamblers,
- completed a master’s degree by research into the way I worked with clients,
- article published in the Australian & New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy,
- volunteered for a climate-solutions think tank, and
- developed this website, starting in 2009.
Gunner (2002). “Problem gambling development and recovery: A reflective counsellor’s practical construction based on feedback”. (Unpublished master’s thesis). The University of Melbourne.
Gunner (2006), “Feedback Loops in Clinical Practice: An Integrative Framework”. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, September 2006, Volume 27, Number 3, Pages 143-152.
Feedback
As a counsellor, I found myself talking to clients about how their attempts to escape from difficulties were also increasing those same difficulties; for some clients, problems in a relationship lead them to gamble, leading to money losses, which made the relationship worse.
| More escape via gambling | ———-> | More gambling loses |
| ^ l | l v | |
| Increased relationship problems | <———- | * |
People can get stuck in escalating dynamics like this. I was using the systems theory concept of amplifying feedback, and I focussed my social work masters on research into this way of working.
Amplifying feedback is also a critical part of climate change, so this site describes some feedback loops that threaten our liveable climate, e.g., for the Arctic sea-ice:
| More global heating | ———-> | More ice melting |
| ^ l | l v | |
| Sunlight reflected less & absorbed more | <———- | Less ice & more open water |
Understanding the vicious feedback loops that drive addiction to gamble or our addiction to fossil fuels can be useful but can also unearth fear. The critical task is to foster virtuous feedback loops that can produce hope and drive recovery. So, this site is now emphasising vision, progress, and benefits, a trio that can form a closed causal cycle:
| More popularity for the superpower vision | ———-> | * |
| ^ l | l v | |
| More benefits | <———- | More progress towards the vision |
- promoting a vision and progress towards the vision, and
- the progress that Australia is making towards becoming a renewable energy superpower.
The broad relevance of feedback to climate change, human functioning, and more led to this website’s name: “feedback reigns”.
Contact
To contact me, please use the Contact Page
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Updated 1 April 2021
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Andrew – thank you for your efforts. There is a lot of highly useful information here and, having just discovered your site, I will, I’m sure, become a regular visitor.