It's useful to remember this when tempted to make arguments that assume there is a Right Way to do things. We are exploring a massive possibility space where components interact in non-linear ways. There isn't a right way, there is no golden path. The reality of our society is an integration of each individual experience. We build theories as abstractions of that integration in order to manage and engage with that massive complexity. It can be useful, as long as we remember that they are abstractions. When we forget that our abstractions are only abstractions, we tend to cause additional problems on top of that which we were already trying to engage.

What struck me about credit scores is that, from the outside, it seems so obviously ripe for corruption and predation. But growing up, it just felt that it was the way things had to be; how could it possibly be different?