Hard Problems
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A system’s constraints define its possible behavior more than its goals.

Donella H. MeadowsThinking in Systems, 2008

Many failures arrive wearing the costume of professionalism. In a metric proposal that will change incentives, the argument sounds responsible right up until the system breaks. The story is what makes the risk hard to see.

In a metric proposal that will change incentives, you will be tempted to trade a small, visible win for a large, delayed cost. Drift happens when the cost stays unnamed. You see it in a decision that drifts because nobody writes the boundary. Make the boundary explicit enough that a peer could disagree with it; if no one can disagree, no one can defend it under pressure.

Donella H. Meadows is a reminder to audit the argument, not the intention. State the non-goal and the boundary that keeps scope from turning into a rewrite. Save it where decisions live.

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