Hacker News Reader

> The purpose of a system is what it does.

I'm a fan of a slightly different version of this that I heard years ago:

"Just because something isn't working as advertised, doesn't mean it's not working as intended."

I like that, and there are definitely situations where that describes what’s happening better. But I feel like adding intent changes it a bit. Some of the worst things exist not because of intent but because of indifference. E.g. nobody wants to destroy the planet, but a lot of people don’t give a shit if what they do happens to do that.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com