Warning, this post is not covering the ‘systems thinking’ that most of you will be expected to know in staff level jobs, it is using the term for up front design.

In a more typical modern sense systems thinking is more about relationships and wholes, rather than isolating parts, which is the traditional engineering approach.

While much of the base material on systems thinking will be based around cybernetics, it is really a complement to traditional engineering, used in parallel to identity more natural complexity boundaries and to help avoid confusion and accidental complexity.

Gregor Hohpe’s Architect Elevator is probably a good place to start on why this change in perspective is important and why investing in flexibility is crucial when there is uncertainty.

While you may have to accept this article’s definition in some groups, accepting the more modern definition will help you get jobs in places that are nicer to work.

This type of false dichotomy that is presented in the article is a warning that there is soft work to be done.

People mentioning mechanical engineering in this thread are possibly the people who may benefit most from examining the material. I encourage you to see if this is a path forward for your needs.