@tess Also you can improve a system without really understanding how it works. You do it every time you read a book and learn something. Indeed Ashby's law says you can never understand yourself - yet self improvement is possible
You can design effective systems when you don't know how people will use them It's harder and requires expertise. However the statement is mostly a misunderstanding. Systems evolve and the software design, implement, deploy, run away model is what is broken