Origins of this website
The Muddle Buster website is about advancing the use of a well-structured, competent approach to resolving complex, contentious issues. On this website, that approach is called Collaborative Solution-Discovery (CSD).
The author of this website is Dr. William. H. Cutler, a. k. a.The Muddle Buster. After receiving his PhD in Physics from Stanford University in 1965. Dr. Cutler embarked on a profession in aerospace, employed by Lockheed Missiles and Space Co. for 34 years, and at NASA’s Ames Research Center for four years, both in Northern California. He began his career as an Advanced Study Scientist, doing exploratory research on propulsion and energy systems for spacecraft. Over the years, participating in many projects, he evolved professionally to become a Systems Engineer. His later-year involvements include participation in development of Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion and the International Space Station.
While on the Space Station project, Dr. Cutler shared pleasant lunch-time strolls with a friend and colleague, during which they discussed their common interest in systems engineering, and explored ways that their professional discipline could be applied to another interest they had in common, which was volunteer activists addressing complex civic issues. Among their civic contributions were assistance to the U. S. Forest Service in preparation of a Management Plan for the Immigrant Valley Wilderness Area, and advice to the Santa Clara Basin Watershed Management Initiative in its early days. During this time Dr. Cutler also participated in writing the first version of the Systems Engineering Handbook, prepared by the International Council on Systems Engineering.
These two friends soon expanded their group, forming what they called the Systems Engineering Guys. At monthly potluck dinners over a time span of a few years, they explored what systems engineering in essence was about, and how it could be applied universally, wherever serious issues involved understanding and improving/creating complex systems.
After he retired and moved part time to another region of the U. S., Dr. Cutler continued to pursue his interest in civic applications of system thinking/engineering. He participated in the re-licensing process for a large hydroelectric dam in South Carolina, and in citizen response to the proposed High Speed Rail project in California, as well as lesser issues. It was through the High Speed Rail experience that he encountered Context Sensitive Solutions, another issue-resolution framework that is highly parallel to Collaborative Solution-Discovery.
During this time he also continued his personal exploration of system thinking and engineering principles, and how to make this esoteric field accessible and useful for people concerned about finding solutions to the complex and contentious issues that challenge society. With retirement providing the gift of time, he compiled the lessons he learned in a document that eventually reached a size of about 500 pages. This is the foundation of Collaborative Solution-Discovery.
In early 2016, Dr. Cutler discovered, and was discovered by, a non-profit organization concerned with improving math education for K-12 students. This organization was beginning a project with a Southern California school district, and their leadership was convinced that they needed system thinking expertise to help with the project. The match-up was like coffee and chocolate. Dr. Cutler provided theoretical concepts, the project people crafted them into practical applications, and the feedback showed what did and did not work. Currently this project is nearing completion and seems to be meeting, perhaps exceeding, expectations. It has attracted the interest of the Gates Foundation, who are highly impressed with the speed at which this project has progressed from initiation to operation in the school district’s classrooms, and the high acceptance it has experienced from teachers, staff, district management,, and the teacher’s union.
After its completion, the 500-page tome on civic applications of system principles, lacking a publisher (guess why), languished on Dr. Cutler’s hard drive. However, Dr. Cutler finally realized that the concepts in that tome could be repackaged as a blog which he, as sole author with the help of a website developer, could release via the web. That project began in the fall of 2018, resulting in www.muddlebuster.org.
Using this site
The content of this site is arranged in a tree-like network. The trunk of the tree is the first screen you saw when you accessed www.muddlebuster.org. The main branches are shown in the sidebar at the left of each screen. Clicking on any branch that interests you opens that screen, and shows its sub-branches in the sidebar. The content of each screen is pretty much self-sufficient, so you can browse the site in any order.