Amidst all this complexity, it is common to hear UXers in this space trumpet the value of systems thinking. Whereas mere mortals are stuck in an endless game of Whac-a-mole, in which for every problem squashed two more pop up, systems thinkers are able to design solutions that work elegantly in the big picture and in the details.
This story starts in the 1970s, when an architect named Frank Duffy conducted an analysis of money spent on a building over the course of its existence. He found that, typically, only a third of the cost goes into the original construction, while the rest is used for ongoing maintenance and remodeling. In other words, the bulk of the expense is not in the creation of the thing, but in its use over time. At the root of this finding was a key insight: "Our basic argument is that there isn't any such thing as a building. A building properly conceived is several layers of longevity,
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