difference between a lake and a river
·
Consider a huge bathtub with slow in- and outflows. Now think about a small one with very fast flows. That’s the difference between a lake and a river. You hear about catastrophic river floods much more often than catastrophic lake floods, because stocks that are big, relative to their flows, are more stable than small ones. In chemistry and other fields, a big, stabilizing stock is known as a buffer.
Link:: Thinking in systems
Наглядный пример про stocks act as delays or buffers or shock absorbers in systems.