(original post: Come On, Obviously The Purpose Of A System Is Not What It Does)

…

Thanks to everyone who commented on this controversial post.

Many people argued that the phrase had some valuable insight, but disagreed on what it was. The most popular meaning was something like "if a system consistently fails at its stated purpose, but people don't change it, consider that the stated purpose is less important than some actual, hidden purpose, at which it is succeeding".

I agree you should consider this, but I still object to the original phrase, for several reasons.

https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/highlights-from-the-comments-on-posiwid