[throwawaygh]

Indeed. I also really like that this hierarchy is... not a hierarchy. I.e., there's no universal "correct" ordering of what/how/why.

Lots of people emphasize the "what"/"why" when talking about software engineering ethics, and lament that everyone only ever talks about the "how". I think that view kinds of misses the point. The three questions are rarely completely separate. Plus, for most engineering projects most folks will work on throughout their career, the "what" and "why" are extremely straight-forward and at least relatively uncontroversial. The "how" (good security, good uptime, etc.) is by far the most important question.