Reversing abstractions: an existential crisis

This write up is very relevant to my interests and on point. While it focuses on languages and compiling specifically, the general problem exists across all of software.

orthodox neglect of the universal and the backwards, in favour of the forwards and existential, is part of the reason why software is not a soft material

We also have no good models to represent the two distinct layers and the fact that there is a correspondence between them. Maybe there's a way to design a meta abstraction, one that models the general entities and realizes entities. The general and the realized should be made out of the same material, so to speak.

On floating the above concerns, of adaptability and flexibility, the usual reaction is: who needs all that “complexity”?

At small scales the current models do seem simpler and easier to grasp. But I think it's just a short term trap which leads to compounded problems at larger scales.

uniformity doesn't scale

I wouldn't go so far as to say this. However an interesting angle is to identify what are the smallest abstractions and concretions we can agree on to get maximum power from minimal universals.