# Scapegoating-as-a-Service

*The Hot New Thing™ Hype Cycle*

By [Occasional Observations](https://paragraph.com/@oo) · 2025-05-05

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Here's a pernicious loop:

*   A Hot New Thing™ comes along
    
*   Experts™ tout it as the silver bullet
    
*   Teams ask too much of it
    
*   Hot New Thing™ crumples under the weight of unwarranted expectations
    
*   Think pieces abound, announcing the death of Hot New Thing™
    
*   Hot New Thing™ becomes a Cold Dead Failure™
    

Design systems. Agile. Design thinking. Design Sprints. MVPs. And so on.

We tend to blame a methodology, externality, or technology rather than examine our own contribution to dysfunction.

\[_The topic deserves a much larger post, but this will have to suffice for now._\]

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_Header photo by_ [_Jorge Salvador_](https://unsplash.com/@jsshotz?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash) _on_ [_Unsplash_](https://unsplash.com/photos/herd-of-goats-on-field-during-daytime-tqXeLOBzJsI?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash)

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*Originally published on [Occasional Observations](https://paragraph.com/@oo/scapegoating-as-a-service)*