A systems-thinking essay that explains why failure rarely happens suddenly. It shows how slow drift, accumulating pressure, and weakening buffers push systems toward collapse long before outcomes change, and why prediction-focused analytics miss the most important phase of failure.

A systems-thinking essay that reframes failure as a gradual transition rather than a discrete outcome. It explains how pressure accumulation, weakening buffers, and hidden instability precede visible collapse, and why prediction-based models arrive too late to prevent failure in human-centered systems.