The field of Architecture has given rise to a second major principle relating to the Life Cycle of Systems. This principle has emerged from the obser… - John Gall

A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over, beginning with a working simple system.

Loose systems last longer and function better.

A question frequently asked is: does not the persistent occurrence of Horrible Examples of Systems-function (or Malfunction) prove something about human nature? If humans were rational, wouldn’t they act otherwise than they do? We reply: Systems-functions are not the result of human intransigeance. We take it as given that people are generally doing the very best they know how. Our point, repeatedly stressed in this text, is that Systems operate according to Laws of Nature, and that Laws of Nature are not suspended to accommodate our human shortcomings. There is no alternative to learning How Systems Work, unless one is willing to continue to run afoul of those Laws. Whoever does not study the Laws of Systemantics and learn them that way, is destined to learn them the hard way, by direct encounter in the world of Experience. That such runnning-afoul continues to occur is simply a reflection of the fact that knowledge of those laws is not yet sufficiently widespread. The problem is one of Education, and this book represents an effort in that direction.