This is a hard problem and definitely not unique to Java. For example networks, or perhaps more appropriately, network protocols, have these kinds of cliffs as

This is a hard problem and definitely not unique to Java. For example networks, or perhaps more appropriately, network protocols, have these kinds of cliffs as the offered load on the network increases. As I understand a particularly bad traffic jam in the early internet is what motivated congestion control in TCP. As a matter of a fact traffic is also an example of this phenomenon playing out without any (effective) compensating measures. I find "Metastable failures in distributed systems" [1] to be a really interesting and accessible exploration of the problem. [1]: https://sigops.org/s/conferences/hotos/2021/papers/hotos21-s11-bronson.pdf https://sigops.org/s/conferences/hotos/2021/papers/hotos21-s...