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I feel like there's an analogy to software in this story. Someone put in a hack that, while ugly, works. I'm sure many city planners over the years have looked
by curun1r 10y ago
I feel like there's an analogy to software in this story. Someone put in a hack that, while ugly, works. I'm sure many city planners over the years have looked at it and thought it should be fixed. But when the current solution is working, taking the time to do the necessary testing to ensure that a new, cleaner solution works would be painful. So, 30 years later, the hack is still in place.
I know I've come across the software equivalent of this many times in my life as a developer. "Hmm...that's a really odd way of doing that, I should refactor this. But I need to write a bunch of tests for this since the original developer didn't write any. And am I really thinking through all the possible use cases properly? Even if I am, this is now a 3-day estimate, which means it will probably take 5 days, and all to "fix" something that's technically working. That's a lot of risk/time commitment for very little payout. Maybe I should just leave it be and move on to a project that's better setup to succeed."
Yep...makes total sense that this light still exists. Still doesn't explain why they replace the green and amber bulbs though...
- nerthus 10y agoIt is more like "convention over configuration". In fact, it isn't a hack. It is the simple applyance of putting elements in a system, because of a contract. Another good analogy in software would be UX and style guides. You'd like the user to have a consistent experience. The replacement is like running a cron job to do some stuff and forget to check if it makes sense. It can be done better, but on the other hand, it's less complicated this way (and never change a running system). This one red light has been removed btw. The street is a dead end towards the intersection now. But you can find another one near Wasaplatz.
- EugeneOZ 10y agoOne more evidence that "convention over configuration" principle should be avoided :)
- golergka 10y agoI think it's evidence to the contrary. We only know how much one street light cost; we don't know (from this article) how effective the overall system that manages the whole country is. I can bet that because of these rules it's much more effective then a system where every single streetlight has to be considered and configured by a bureaucrat who makes an individual decision.
- majewsky 10y agoWhen extra3 had a segment on these red lights in their "Der alltägliche Irrsinn" ("Everyday madness") series, they said that there were three such lights in Dresden. I only know the one at Wasaplatz heading into Oskarstraße. Let's see if it survives the upcoming redesign of Wasaplatz this year.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- avip 10y agoNo eng. code of conduct overrides "it works, don't touch".