Alphabets of Emergence

substack.com

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 with a working simple system. – John Gall (Systemantics: How Systems Really Work and How They Fail)

The author’s mathematical notation of how the foundational technologies of the web fit together struck me as interesting:

URLs + HTTP + HTML = web

URLs + HTTP + RSS = Podcasts

URLs + HTTP + JSON = REST APIs

URLs + P2P + HTML = Web3