This paper describes how those trained in systemic thinking (whether system dynamics or systems thinking) avoid the reasoning pitfalls among those not trained to think systemically. I will discuss how systemic thinking provides advantages in two fundamental areas: in avoiding underestimation or misattribution of relationships when constructing an understanding of a situation, and in providing better action based on that understanding. Its strength in these areas gives it a great advantage over the thinking commonly employed by those who have not been trained systematically and is, I believe, one of the main reasons for the superior results obtained by interventions based on systems thinking versus those based on other methodologies.