Ways of Thinking
The foundational lenses every architect should carry: questioning maps, reasoning from first principles, looking past first-order effects, and matching rigor to reversibility.
- No. 001
The Map Is Not the Territory
Every diagram, model, and dashboard is a simplification. The running system is the truth.
- No. 002
First Principles Thinking
Break a problem down to what must be true, then rebuild the solution from there instead of copying others.
- No. 003
Second-Order Thinking
Ask “and then what?” The consequences of consequences are where architectures succeed or fail.
- No. 004
Inversion and the Pre-mortem
Instead of asking how to succeed, ask what would guarantee failure — then avoid it.
- No. 005
Occam's Razor
Among designs or explanations that fit the facts, prefer the one with the fewest assumptions.
- No. 006
Circle of Competence
Know the boundary of what you genuinely understand, and act differently inside and outside it.
- No. 007
One-Way vs Two-Way Doors
Match decision rigour to reversibility: decide reversible choices fast and irreversible ones carefully.
- No. 008
Probabilistic Thinking
Reason in likelihoods and distributions, not certainties and averages.
- No. 009
The Algorithm: Question, Delete, Simplify, Accelerate, Automate
Make the requirements less dumb, delete what you can, and only then simplify, speed up and automate — in that order.
- No. 010
Cynefin
First work out what kind of situation you are in, because clear, complicated, complex and chaotic problems each need a different way of deciding.
- No. 011
Amara's Law
We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate it in the long run, so plan for both the hype and the structural change.
- No. 012
OODA Loop
Observe, orient, decide and act in a continuous loop; orientation shapes everything else, and whoever cycles faster and better gains the advantage.
- No. 013
Satisficing
With limited time, information and attention, set a clear bar for good enough and take the first option that meets it, instead of searching for the best.
- No. 014
Decisions vs Outcomes (Resulting)
Judge a decision by the process and the information available at the time, not by how it turned out, because outcomes mix skill with luck.