Sketchplanations - A weekly explanation in a sketch

SYSTEMS TEND TO OPPOSE THEIR OWN PROPER FUNCTIONS

It was Parkinson who, with the delicious insight of the born historian, applied this Principle to Architecture, pointing out that PERFECTION OF PLANNING IS A SYMPTOM OF DECAY and providing us with a dazzling succession of examples including the Palace of Versailles (completed in time to receive the news of defeat at Blenheim), the League of Nations

To that haunting and recurrent question, despite vigorous investigation, no clear answer yet appears. Even Toynbee, floundering through his massive survey of 20-odd civilizations, was finally able to discern only that: SYSTEMS TEND TO MALFUNCTION CONSPICUOUSLY JUST AFTER THEIR GREATEST TRIUMPH Toynbee explains this effect by pointing out the strong

you are looking for when the number of patterns in your library increases. It also gives you no guidance or inspiration for where to use a specific pattern. People start to build more and more new patterns instead of reusing and enhancing the existing ones, which makes the problem worse and worse over time.” — Tobias Ritterbach, experience owner, S

Good protocols do not just treat solutions to problems as works-in-progress, with bugs and imperfections to be worked out over the long term, but the specifications of the problems as works-in-progress as well. Good protocols learn, grow, and mature in ways that catalyze thoughtful stewardship and sustained generativity. Bad protocols on the other