A system is a relationship changing under a rule
Parts, plus a rule between them, produce behaviour over time.
REL.36 January 2026stableworking position
The formulation I keep returning to is the smallest one: parts, a rule operating between them, and behaviour that follows. A system becomes interesting when those interactions produce something over time that you would not predict from the parts alone.
I try to reach this before naming anything. If I call a thing a platform, a market or a community too early, the name arrives carrying assumptions I did not examine. So first: what is actually here, what relates to what, and what rule changes that relationship?