Negentropy Lens

A decision-support framework that evaluates systems and architectures by asking whether they're decaying into complexity debt or compounding value over time. You'd use this when reviewing technical designs, choosing between options, or auditing existing systems. It walks through five phases: mapping the system boundary, diagnosing entropy vs negentropy indicators, surfacing tacit knowledge gaps (the unwritten assumptions and workarounds), evaluating compounding potential, and then challenging the framing. The tacit knowledge probe is non-negotiable, which is the right call. Most architecture decisions rest on unstated assumptions about how things actually work versus how documentation claims they work.