"Systems resist change that exposes past errors.
The word systems is the hinge. In a scaling issue where efficiency and resilience pull apart, it tells you which part of the situation is structural, not personal. That is the part you have to design around.
In a scaling issue where efficiency and resilience pull apart, the failure mode is rarely ignorance. It is choosing as if the system were simpler than it is, then being surprised by the interaction effects. You see it in a local optimization that creates global instability. Write it down because otherwise two reasonable engineers will execute two different interpretations, and the system will call it “miscommunication.”
James Q. Wilson is a reminder to keep it concrete. Surface the assumption the plan depends on and name the first signal that would prove it wrong. Keep it short enough to remember under stress.