apenwarr : Systems design explains the world: volume 1

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Interesting article on how systems design, well, explains the world. Presents several examples of this:

• Hierarchies and decentralisation; and that even if you create a "decentralised", you can have implicit control structures. With an explicit control structure, you can at least analyse and debug it.
• Chicken-egg problems; many technologies only provide value if there is a wide adoption of them.
• Second-system effect; the greenfield rewrite
• Innovator's dilemmas; An innovator can focus all of their efforts on their projects which are working well, as these are the high-profit, high-margin projects (these are also the projects that the company is good at). This may involve ceding some other market segments (ex. the low end, in which case it can be called "retreating upmarket"). Upstarts in those market segments will gradually improve, becoming more of a threat to the original company. As well, the upstarts now have a head-start in that space, so pushing back against them is harder; even more if one has been retreating upmarket throughout.

The article thinks these through from a systems design perspective. It is well worth the read.