In his book Wind and Fire, Bruce Larson tells of a friend of his who lives near Hoyt Park in Madison, Wisconsin, and who happens to be a great bird lover. Invariably, his yard is full of all kinds of birds in all seasons. However, the squirrels plague his bird feeders continually. Exasperated, he finally bought a pellet gun and began to shoot the squirrels, two and three a day, every day, week after week. In spite of these desperate measures, the squirrel population seemed undiminished. One day, he was discussing the irksome problem with his colleague at work. His friend said, "I solved that problem. I was troubled by squirrels, too. But now I trap them. I trap two or three a day and take them down to Hoyt Park and release them."

Larson comments, "That's an example of what can happen when we approach all of our problems individually, with no sense of the larger picture."