anticipating-second-order-effects

Trace cascading consequences beyond immediate impact to understand how changes propagate through systems. Use when: (1) asked to analyze changes that focus only on immediate benefits without discussing downstream consequences, (2) reviewing an architectural decision and needing to understand how it propagates through the system over time, (3) the discussion emphasizes first-order improvements without exploring what those improvements enable or prevent in subsequent system interactions, (4) comparing options and needing to understand their full impact radius beyond the component being changed, (5) the change under consideration has dependencies or is depended upon by other system components, but the analysis treats it as standalone, (6) assessing whether a change is worthwhile and needing to weigh direct benefits against indirect costs