Ruth — of systems & designRE: https://mastodon.social/@RuthMalan/116125837181076150
waves around at <things ai>
“Once set up, it won't Go Away; it Grows and Encroaches. It begins to do Strange and Wonderful Things and Breaks Down in Ways You Never Thought Possible. It Kicks Back, Gets In The Way and Opposes Its Own Proper Function. Your own perspective becomes distorted by being In The System. You become anxious and Push On It To Make It Work. Eventually you come to believe that the misbegotten product it so grudgingly delivers is What You Really Wanted all the time.”
— John Gall
That’s 1975 waggling it’s eyebrows and gesturing at 2026
“you become responsible” *
* but sadly… we tend so much to punt on that part…
Hector Correa@RuthMalan all of it is wonderful, but this bit really hits hard:
"Your own perspective becomes distorted by being In The System"
Albert Cardona"New systems generate new problems." Spot on.
Resonates with current times so much:
For politics:
«The Reporting Problem: "Things are what they are reported to be."»
For software engineering as a profession and as one of the pillars of modern life:
«Tread Softly: "In setting up a new system, tread softly. You may be disturbing another system that is actually working."»
For those training LLMs:
«Focus on Process, Not Just Outcome: Most people are overly concerned with the end result, when they should focus more on the process that produced the outcome.»