[SpaceManNabs]

I think the issue with the math is that it doesn't read well.

For example, the paragraphs around the paragraph with "compute the exact Poisson tail (or use a Chernoff bound)" and that paragraph itself could be better illustrated with lines of math instead of mostly language.

I think you do need some math if you want to approach this probabilistically, but I agree that might not be the most accessible approach, and a hard threshold calculation is more accessible and maybe just as good.

[cogman10]

For something like this, annotated graphs and examples (IMO) work a lot better than formulas in explaining the problem and solution.

Particularly because distributed computer systems aren't pure math problems to be solved. Load often comes from usage which is often closer to random inputs rather than predicable variables. Further, how load is processed depends on a bunch of things from the OS scheduler to the current load on the network.

It can be hard to really intuitively understand that a bottlenecked system processes the same load slower than an unbound system.