How a single bug created an entire genre

Design history is full of cases where a rule appeared before anyone invented it. A developer notices the system behaving unlike the intent — and instead of correcting it, leaves it alone.

That is an uncomfortable thought for an industry fond of talking about vision. A defect is by definition outside the plan. Which means part of what we call an authorial decision is a discovery, not a decision.

Design is found more often than it is drawn. What you design are the conditions in which there is something to find.

The practical conclusion follows: a prototype is valuable not when it confirms the hypothesis but when it produces unexpected behaviour. A team that fixes every deviation immediately cuts off its only source of novelty.