The Shape of the System

Start here

Five doors into the same house.

Everything here is one idea, looked at from several sides. The manifesto states it plainly, but it speaks to someone who already trusts the argument; if that is not you yet, one of these doors is a gentler way in. Pick the one that fits why you came.

Give me the six minute overview

The whole point, as plainly as it gets: build correctness into the shape of the system, not the vigilance of the people maintaining it. One short essay and you have it.

I want the whole argument

The manifesto itself: twenty-five tenets, each naming the failure it prevents, the tension it creates, and the one question to ask yourself mid-edit.

I want the practical version

The manifesto put to work across the software lifecycle, phase by phase: triage, planning, implementing, integrating, reviewing, verifying, shipping, operating, retrospective and retiring.

I want the field notes

Short reads for tired, distractible, ordinary, and now partly machine minds, each walking in through a single bug, outage or bad decision.

I want the personal backstory

Why any of this exists: the ADHD diagnosis, the mail server I deleted in 2001, and the handrails I built so a forgetful engineer could still make a correct change.