Most software failures are not technical. They are organizational.
Systems rarely collapse because of a missing semicolon or an inefficient algorithm. They fail because incentives were misaligned, ownership was unclear, or responsibility was diluted until no one could see the whole.
In production environments, code does not exist in isolation. It lives inside companies, hierarchies, budgets, deadlines, and unspoken agreements. Ignoring this context is not neutrality. It is negligence.
Software that truly runs is software designed with awareness of the system it inhabits. That means understanding not only architecture diagrams, but decision paths. Not only infrastructure, but power structures.
Reliability is not achieved through heroics. It is achieved through boring clarity, repeatable processes, and decisions that remain valid under pressure.
When systems fail, they rarely surprise those who were paying attention.