Systems design explains the world (2020)
Seems like systems design is just studying a potpourri of engineering disciplines and the job entails stringing it all together the best that you can. Is there a formal theory about systems? I don't think so, and if there is, there's definitely no way to quantify if one system is "better" than another.<p>Since no formal theory about the field exists.. every conjecture is just opinion. So someone working in systems design won't necessarily come up with a better "design" then some other person who doesn't specifically work in the field given that there's a lack of a formal theory to prove it either way. In software these guys who do "designs" are the system architects and I think the ridicule is justified given that anyone can do it.<p>Category theory is the closest thing I've seen to a fundamental theory of design and I'm positive it's not well known among "systems design" engineers. Honestly it's not even that useful either because the theory doesn't include any measurement to determine if one structure is "better" than another.