I most commonly apply Chesterton's Fence in the context of new employees / managers. In that instance, it's more about naivety or ego ("I know better"), and les

I most commonly apply Chesterton's Fence in the context of new employees / managers. In that instance, it's more about naivety or ego ("I know better"), and less about needing to read the ancient runes to fully understand something. I've seen so many people jump into a business, want to prove themselves, and start changing things without understanding the context in which that thing was built. (Similarly, though less often, businesses expanding into new products or markets.) "Tell me what will change if you stop doing X" is thus added to "Tell me what will change if you start doing Y". To be fair, citing Chesterton's Fence just make me sound wise (and/or a little curmudgeonly); the better story for the point I'm making is the hospital bed where someone dies every Thursday morning at 10am ... only for video footage to reveal the cleaner unplugging machinery to plug in their vacuum cleaner every week.