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This essay was written in response to an invitation by the editors of NSS issued after the author had reviewed the paper entitled “Methodological challenges of trans-disciplinary research ” submitted by Christian Pohl and Gertrude Hirsch-Hadorn (see Pohl and Hirsch Hadorn, 2008). The essay provides an accounting for the transformation in my emotioning as I read the submitted paper by introducing three sets of distinctions: (i) a model of research practice; (ii) an explication of the nature of research situations and (iii) an exploration of the different intellectual lineages that give rise to contemporary systems approaches. I then return to the paper that was under review through the lens of trans-disciplinary research as social learning.