I've witnessed how abandoning first principles undermines the evolution of a system. If our mental model of a system is not formalized into first principles (i.

I've witnessed how abandoning first principles undermines the evolution of a system. If our mental model of a system is not formalized into first principles (i.e. a high-level specification), then successive generations of engineers will have to re-learn those principles through trial-and-error. They'll introduce mutations and dependencies between the mutations-- and when they leave, the next generation of maintainers will repeat the process. Generations of mutations eventually create a brittle, calcified creature of a system which people fear to touch with a ten foot poll. I imagine people who were taught SICP would be more respectful, if not inclined, towards a formal articulation of a system's principles. This philosophy is described in depth in the original 1985 article https://gwern.net/doc/cs/algorithm/1985-naur.pdf https://gwern.net/doc/cs/algorithm/1985-naur.pdf and in more accessible language in https://www.baldurbjarnason.com/2022/theory-building/ https://www.baldurbjarnason.com/2022/theory-building/. You can also observe engineers opposing/misunderstanding the need for specification in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42114874 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42114874