Tech article argues 'fast and scalable' are insufficient, unquantified system goals.

A tech industry article criticizes the common practice of describing system designs with vague terms like 'fast and scalable.' The author argues these are not real requirements but unquantified wishes that fail to guide architectural decisions. The piece asserts that concrete, numerical non-functional requirements—like latency, throughput, and availability—are essential for selecting appropriate technology and preventing outages. It concludes by providing a template for quantifying these requirements in both interviews and real-world design documents.