Some Things Shouldn't Be Optimized

The Engineer, the Ecosystem, and the Mistake That Changes Everything “The most common mistake of a smart engineer is to optimize a thing that should not exist.” – Elon Musk Every engineer knows this sickening feeling: You create a brilliant solution… to the wrong problem. ...The attendance System tries to optimize nameable external components. *better sermons and conjured controlled participation *better buildings and parking *better music and performance *better programs *better branding and marketing *better clergy training *better small groups with better curriculum *better attendance pipelines and convenient times and venue locations “If we only did these things a little better, God would descend and we wouldn’t have to keep embellishing our stories about how close to God we are, in spite of the bad fruit.” But the parts never add up. Because the System Jesus designed was never a System at all—it was an Ecosystem. A living, interdependent organism, defined by daily relationships, spiritual saturation, priesthood, accountability, and devotion.