/00_welcome
Before the first line of code.
There are no users, no data, no bugs. Just diagrams, ideas and confidence. Someone says “Let’s keep it simple”. Another says “We can always fix it later”.
It feels clean, rational.. safe. This is the most dangerous moment.
/01_the_fix
A decision that feels obvious. When designing a software product, the wrong person proposes an optimization “We should centralize logic”.
No code is written yet. Not in size, but in vision. A part is defined in isolation, as if it will never touch the rest.
/02_the_reaction
This simple decision shapes everything that follows: data models adapt to it, interfaces bend around it. Teams start thinking around it.
The system is already constrained. Paths are closed before they exist. The reaction is silent, but real.
/03_the_gap
What the design doesn’t see. Not a technical gap, but conceptual. This decision assumes that behavior is stable. That users act the same. That context doesn’t matter. That every future change will be local.
None of that is true in a system that connects humans, incentives and time.
/04_the_pattern
An old pattern in a new form, and the pattern is older than software.
Factories optimized tasks and broke meaning.
Cities optimized flows and created congestion.
Institutions optimized rules and lost purpose.
Each time designers touched one variable and ignored the web around it. We keep repeating this mistake with better tools and less patience.
/05_today
How does modern software amplify it? Software products aren’t tools.. they are behavioral engines.
They decide who gets attention. They define what workflow means. And they reward some actions but punish others.
Yet they are designed by people who thinks in features, not systems. Who confuses clarity with simplicity.
/06_the_blind_spot
At this point, the failure isn’t lack of knowledge. It’s lack of humility.
You cannot design a system by fixing parts, you must understand interactions, delays and feedback before acting.
The blind spot is to design with confidence and discover consecuences later. This isn’t engineering, this is gambling.
/07_a_different_posture
Design in stillness.
While everything around moves fast, while deadlines compress and opinions collide, stay in the calm center.. like the eye of a hurricane where nothing is random.
From there, ask what decision will touch, not just what it fixes. Assume consecuences and side effects exist even if they are invisible. Listen to complexity instead of fighting it.
The most dangerous bugs aren’t in the code. They live in assumptions we never questioned. It isn’t about fixing parts faster, but about understanding consequences earlier.
/08_last_line
A line you ignore at your own risk.
The system doesn’t break when it’s used, it breaks when it’s designed by people who never learned how systems behave.
Photo by Pixabay