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Without a theory, experience has no meaning.

Systems drift when long-term consequences remain abstract.

Control reduces variance at the expense of adaptability.

Control reduces variation but also reduces information.

What looks like a violation is often the only way the work gets done.

A system is never the sum of its parts; it is the product of their interactions.

Every increase in efficiency increases vulnerability.

Every act of measurement disturbs the system being measured.

A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked.

Organizations optimize what can be audited, not what matters.

Failures are rarely caused by isolated errors but by the unexpected interaction of multiple factors.

Design is the art of arranging constraints.

The most dangerous failures are those that appear rational at the time.