The Infinite Building Problem

Imagine you're building a house. You could keep adding rooms, floors, swimming pools, helicopter pads, underground bunkers... there's literally no end to what you could add.

System design has the same problem - it's infinitely buildable. You can keep adding:

• More features
• More components
• More services
• More complexity

But here's the million-dollar question: When do you stop?

Without clear evaluation criteria, you might either:

1. Under-design: Draw one box labeled 'Facebook' and call it done
2. Over-design: Create 50 microservices for a simple blog

Key Insight: "Good system design isn't about drawing the most boxes - it's about drawing the right boxes with clear purpose."