think-causal-loop-diagramslisted

<!-- thinking-framework-skills | https://github.com/product-on-purpose/thinking-framework-skills | Apache-2.0 --> # Causal Loop Diagrams People narrate systems as one-directional chains and silently drop the loop-back. "More users, so more revenue" omits "...which funds acquisition, which brings more users" - the cycle that actually drives the behavior. This skill performs one distinct move: **close the feedback loops and sign them**. Trace each cycle back to its start so it closes, give every link a polarity (does a rise in A raise (+) or lower (-) B), and label the whole loop **reinforcing (R)** when the signs multiply to net-positive (it amplifies: a vicious or virtuous spiral) or **balancing (B)** when they multiply to net-negative (it counteracts: goal-seeking, or oscillation when delayed). Then read likely behavior off the structure: which loop dominates, and therefore whether the system spirals, seeks a goal, or oscillates. The output is a **signed causal loop diagram** framed as a structured argument about dynamics - not a prediction. It corrects a specific, well-evidenced failure (people misperceive feedback); it does not claim to predict the system or to teach systems thinking wholesale. ## When to Use - A variable plausibly feeds back on itself through a cycle (growth funds growth; a fix recreates its problem; relief of a constraint re-attracts the load). - The puzzle is *why does this keep accelerating / stalling / overshooting and undershooting* - behavior tha