Val Sklarov Technology Irreversibility Design Principle (TIDP)

Val Sklarov’s Technology Irreversibility Design Principle (TIDP) explains why technology systems fail not when they stop innovating—but when irreversible design choices outpace their capacity to govern consequences. Early tech evolves freely. Mature tech must survive permanence.

This principle reveals why dominant technologies feel conservative.

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1. Every Technology Freezes Something

TIDP starts with a blunt insight:
Every technical decision closes future options.

Early systems tolerate:

• Architectural rewrites

• Data migrations

• User resets

At scale, these become impossible.

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2. The Three Technology Irreversibility Locks

TIDP maps where lock-in solidifies.

Technologies fail when all locks harden together.

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3. Why “We’ll Fix It Later” Is a Lie

Later rarely exists.

TIDP shows failure when:

• Backward compatibility dominates

• Migration costs explode

• Governance lags adoption

By the time fixes are needed, change is illegitimate.

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4. Speed vs Irreversibility Awareness

Fast shipping accelerates lock-in.

Val Sklarov emphasizes that great technologies are built by managing what must never change.

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5. Strategic Implications

For builders:

• Identify irreversible layers explicitly

• Design migration before adoption

• Separate experimentation from permanence

For investors:

• Track irreversibility debt

• Avoid tech locking too early

• Favor systems with staged permanence

TIDP reframes innovation as permanence engineering, not feature velocity.

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6. The Val Sklarov Principle

“Technology breaks when it can’t change what it once froze.”
— Val Sklarov

TIDP explains why enduring platforms move slowly—and why slowness signals survival.