---
id: "quote-ripping-up-railroad"
type: "quote"
source_timestamps: ["00:10:01"]
tags: ["analogy", "system-design"]
related: ["contrarian-agents-need-rails", "concept-skill-vs-process"]
speakers: ["Nate B. Jones"]
quote: "You don't want it to try to remember the whole process end to end and pretend it will follow that. You know what that's like? It's like ripping up your railroad and sticking your train on the ground and saying, 'kind of go that way'."
sources: ["s53-agent-100x-review-3x"]
sourceVaultSlug: "s53-agent-100x-review-3x"
originDay: 53
---
# Ripping Up the Railroad

## Quote

> *"You don't want it to try to remember the whole process end to end and pretend it will follow that. You know what that's like? It's like ripping up your railroad and sticking your train on the ground and saying, 'kind of go that way'."*
> — [[entity-nate-b-jones]]

## Context

The most quotable analogy in the video. Captures the absurdity of agent autonomy applied to determinable workflows. Forms the rhetorical core of [[contrarian-agents-need-rails]] and the corrective in [[action-hardwire-processes]] / [[concept-skill-vs-process]].