Provenance

• Source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Mercurial-Hermes/systems-thinking-on-apple-silicon/refs/heads/main/PREFACE.md
• Repository repository: https://github.com/Mercurial-Hermes/systems-thinking-on-apple-silicon
• Last synced: 2025-12-30

Curriculum Preface

This curriculum is designed to apply pressure deliberately.

Not by volume. Not by speed. But by dimension.

Progression here is not exponential. It is orthogonal.

Each phase introduces one new way a system can fail, while holding all previous constraints constant. Nothing is rushed. Nothing is skipped. That is why the work feels heavy — and why it is earned.

The Shape of Pressure

Across the curriculum, learners encounter failure one dimension at a time:

• Truth exists — bytes are real
• Structure binds — formats assert contracts
• Time moves — execution is irreversible
• Intervention distorts — observation has cost
• Coordination fails — processes do not agree
• Mistakes persist — state outlives execution
• Truth is partial — networks hide information
• State is mediated — memory is negotiated
• Order is fragile — concurrency breaks narrative
• Intuition lies — performance must be measured
• Constraints rule — architecture shapes behaviour
• Errors amplify — parallelism multiplies failure
• Lies become visible — graphics exposes everything

At no point is a previous dimension relaxed. Each new course adds pressure without removing responsibility.

This is intentional.

Understanding is not accumulated by explanation. It is earned by surviving constraints.

Nothing Is Rushed

This curriculum does not optimise for completion time.

It assumes that:

• careful observation takes time
• restraint must be practiced
• confidence follows discipline, not exposure

Learners are expected to pause, revisit assumptions, and sit with uncertainty.

The goal is not fluency in tools. The goal is durable judgment.

Dipole as a Companion

Dipole is not a product.

It is a companion instrument that evolves alongside the learner.

Throughout the curriculum, Dipole:

• grows in capability as new pressures are introduced
• is never presented as finished or complete
• is held to the same epistemic standards as the learner

This creates a rare symmetry:

• learning improves the tool
• the tool enforces the learning

Dipole does not explain systems. It exposes them.

Its limitations are visible by design, and its development is driven by the demands of honest observation — not by feature checklists.

Very few curricula attempt this alignment.

An Invitation

This curriculum is not for everyone.

It asks for patience, precision, and a willingness to be wrong in public — including about tools you build yourself.

But for those willing to work carefully, it offers something uncommon:

A way to think that remains stable as systems grow more complex.

That is the promise.

Everything else is implementation.