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Personally I think the broken window theory still holds up, at least at a superficial level. The notion of permissibility drives behavior in these human operate

Personally I think the broken window theory still holds up, at least at a superficial level. The notion of permissibility drives behavior in these human operated systems (neighborhood vandalism/software development), and visible examples are signs of what's allowed or acceptable that if left unchecked will soon be widespread - people like to push the limits. The study doing the "debunking" was itself looking at other studies tying broad local criminal behavior to signs of vandalism, which is not what should be correlated here, just more broken windows. Of course the theory itself has been weaponized quite unscientifically, but that doesn't take away its explanatory power. Maybe for software we can call it the "temporary hack" theory, where a codebase will soon be held together with duct tape and one liners if things aren't nipped at the bud.

Jtsummers 5y ago
A related concept is "normalization of deviance", but it's not quite the same as "broken windows" as it's meant to apply to processes (so does apply to software engineering practices and discipline) and not artifacts (that is, the code itself). Basically, you have a, reasonably, safe and disciplined process. You have controls in place for a good reason, but you relax them. Possibly for a good reason, possibly not, and nothing bad happens (at least not yet). This relaxation gradually becomes normalized (think about a safety critical system turning off alarms and leaving them off, "because they're always false alarms"). The odds of a problem occurring is increased by this relaxation of controls and potentially shifts from being "possible" to "inevitable" (in sysadmin stuffs, consider manual data entry at a critical juncture, a fat-fingered value can cause catastrophic problems when it could have been automated and pulled from a regularly reviewed data source).
hn_go_brrrrr 5y ago
I observe it in my personal behavior. For example, if there's a dirty dish in the sink, I'll leave my dirty dish there too and not clean it. If there are no dishes there, I'll do my dish immediately.
- watwut 5y ago
  But, will you steal the wallet because you see the dirty dish? That is what the broken windows theory predicts.
  - Guthur 5y ago
    No, that's not what it says at all. It says there is a correlation between the number of broken windows and crime, that's not causation. Or were you making an attempt to illustrate the common misconception
    - watwut 5y ago
      Literally first result in google: The broken windows theory is a criminological theory that states that visible signs of crime, anti-social behavior, and civil disorder create an urban environment that encourages further crime and disorder, including serious crimes

Jtsummers 5y ago

A related concept is "normalization of deviance", but it's not quite the same as "broken windows" as it's meant to apply to processes (so does apply to software engineering practices and discipline) and not artifacts (that is, the code itself). Basically, you have a, reasonably, safe and disciplined process. You have controls in place for a good reason, but you relax them. Possibly for a good reason, possibly not, and nothing bad happens (at least not yet). This relaxation gradually becomes normalized (think about a safety critical system turning off alarms and leaving them off, "because they're always false alarms"). The odds of a problem occurring is increased by this relaxation of controls and potentially shifts from being "possible" to "inevitable" (in sysadmin stuffs, consider manual data entry at a critical juncture, a fat-fingered value can cause catastrophic problems when it could have been automated and pulled from a regularly reviewed data source).

hn_go_brrrrr 5y ago

I observe it in my personal behavior. For example, if there's a dirty dish in the sink, I'll leave my dirty dish there too and not clean it. If there are no dishes there, I'll do my dish immediately.

watwut 5y ago
But, will you steal the wallet because you see the dirty dish? That is what the broken windows theory predicts.
- Guthur 5y ago
  No, that's not what it says at all. It says there is a correlation between the number of broken windows and crime, that's not causation. Or were you making an attempt to illustrate the common misconception
  - watwut 5y ago
    Literally first result in google: The broken windows theory is a criminological theory that states that visible signs of crime, anti-social behavior, and civil disorder create an urban environment that encourages further crime and disorder, including serious crimes