Legacy systems make new development possible. Much like the decomposition of this year’s generation of plants will support next year’s growth, our experiences with existing systems fuel greenfield projects we’ll take on in the future. What you know now is foundational to what you create later.

Crucially, operating these systems encourages us to consider how we deliver care for them because like humans, our systems may not always be healthy. An ailing legacy system teaches us how to identify degraded performance and confirm restoration. This background is necessary for designing tomorrow’s robust (though likely still susceptible) systems.

Embrace your legacy systems and learn from them.

This post was inspired by a number of ideas, not the least of which is this quote from Donella Meadows:

[M]astery has less to do with pushing leverage points than it does with strategically, profoundly, madly, letting go and dancing with the system.