Longer pieces where Abdel Rahman thinks an idea through.https://ar146.com/https://ar146.com/essays/history-is-a-tool-for-better-questions/https://ar146.com/essays/history-is-a-tool-for-better-questions/Looking at how a system arrived can reveal old constraints, rejected paths, and assumptions that its current form hides.Sun, 19 Jul 2026 01:03:00 GMThistory-and-contextsystems-thinkinglearninghttps://ar146.com/essays/learning-from-first-principles/https://ar146.com/essays/learning-from-first-principles/First-principles learning is not about ignoring existing knowledge; it is about finding the few ideas that explain the rest.Sun, 19 Jul 2026 01:02:00 GMTlearningsystems-thinkinghttps://ar146.com/essays/write-the-decision-not-just-the-code/https://ar146.com/essays/write-the-decision-not-just-the-code/Code preserves what a system does, but a short decision record can preserve why that shape was chosen and what would justify changing it.Sun, 19 Jul 2026 01:01:00 GMTsoftware-craftlearninghttps://ar146.com/essays/boundaries-make-software-clearer/https://ar146.com/essays/boundaries-make-software-clearer/A system becomes easier to understand when each part has a clear responsibility and a clear way to meet the parts around it.Sun, 19 Jul 2026 01:00:00 GMTsoftware-craftsystems-thinking