Conway's Law
Origin
From Melvin Conway's 1967 paper "How Do Committees Invent?" (Datamation). If four teams build four compilers, the resulting compiler has four stages. System architecture mirrors the org chart. A simple observation that became the constitution of all software org design.
Meaning
Messy API? Two teams don't get along. Cleanly modularized code? Clear team boundaries. Amazon's microservices worked because Bezos's "two-pizza teams" matched system boundaries. Conway showed the inverse too: to get the system you want, structure the org accordingly ("Inverse Conway Maneuver").
Lesson — Meeting Eastern Classics
Analects: "The gentleman's virtue is wind; the petty man's virtue is grass. When wind passes over grass, grass bends." Confucius taught that organizational character shapes outcomes. Conway showed that character penetrates the code itself.
"映" combines sun (日) with center (央) — light reflecting, mirroring. A system 映s its organization. Like a mirror — see the org and you see the system; see the system and you see the org. They are one picture.
