Systems: The Purpose of a System is What It Does
by Anil Dash
Sometimes the stated values or purpose of a person or organization are useful in terms of judging what they have intended to do, but intent never matters nearly as much as impact, so we have to treat the actual outputs of that person or system as the ultimate truth when we assess them.
When we spend our energy pinpointing how systems are supposed to work, we lose sight of their actual impact.