And as the current state increases progress increases. And finally as progress increases activity increases. We gone full circle and have produced a reinforcing loop rather than a structure which is self-limiting and balances as in the initial goals structure. The graphs above provide a very enticing scenario that just happens to be false. The difficulty lies in the fact that all this activity isn't for free.
Activity is the result of available resources applied to producing activity.
By modifying the structure to include limited resources in the diagram at the left we end up with a graph of the situation as depicted on the right. The more realistic situation is that activity is relatively limited for some period due to limited progress. Once progress begins to be produced and sensed activity begins an exponential climb, at least until it runs into a resource limit. At this point activity becomes flat and progress continues at a rather linear rate. This will continue until progress runs into some other limiting factor.