anticipating-second-order-effects
CommunityTrace cascading consequences, avoid unforeseen problems.
Software Engineering#architecture#software design#risk management#systems thinking#second-order effects#consequences#change analysis
Authorsynapseradio
Version1.0.0
Installs0
System Documentation
What problem does it solve?
Focusing only on the immediate benefits of a change often leads to unforeseen negative consequences that propagate through a system, causing new problems or negating initial gains. This Skill helps trace these cascading effects.
Core Features & Use Cases
- Direct Change Identification: Clearly states the first-order impact of a change (e.g., faster response times).
- Cascading Consequence Tracing: Iteratively asks "what happens because of that?" to reveal propagation through multiple levels.
- Feedback Loop Detection: Identifies where effects circle back to amplify or dampen the original change.
- Time Horizon Consideration: Recognizes that effects unfold over different timescales (immediate, hours, weeks).
- Use Case: When evaluating a technical change like adding memoization, use this Skill to trace how it might lead to stale data, inconsistent user experiences, and complex invalidation logic, revealing the full impact radius beyond the initial performance gain.
Quick Start
Analyze the second-order effects of adding API rate limiting to our service.
Dependency Matrix
Required Modules
None requiredComponents
Standard package💻 Claude Code Installation
Recommended: Let Claude install automatically. Simply copy and paste the text below to Claude Code.
Please help me install this Skill: Name: anticipating-second-order-effects Download link: https://github.com/synapseradio/thinkies/archive/main.zip#anticipating-second-order-effects Please download this .zip file, extract it, and install it in the .claude/skills/ directory.