- Systems follow the path of least resistance. They optimize what you define — not what you meant.
- Without constraints, everything drifts toward the average. Entropy is undefeated.
- Check under the hood regularly. Dashboards lie. Invariants don’t.
- Change environments (OS, chain, dataset, lab). Hidden assumptions surface under translation.
- Hung processes aren’t “bugs.” They’re signals. Deadlocks, contention, misaligned dependencies.
- Complexity doesn’t punish ignorance immediately. It waits.
System D 