[jtchang]

Designing systems well means understanding tradeoffs when you have choices. And these days you tend to have a lot of choices.

From what hardware you run to what software stack you use. A good systems architect will make these decisions on the fly.

To get better at designing systems you have to actually look at ones in practice. Especially ones you think are bad. Because often what led to that design was a series of tradeoffs. And systems design tends to run end to end. You have to think about not only speed and reliability but often ease of use.