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Allowing important systems to fail is not without cost.
by thfuran 3y ago
Allowing important systems to fail is not without cost.
- mschuster91 3y agoAt some point, the immediate cost of fail-and-fix is lower than the total short to mid term cost of not fixing it. The problem arises when systems are intentionally set up to fail (e.g. USPS pensions, gutting education), because those who set them on a doom course usually do so to offer a privatized "alternative" to pocket the profits.
- jjk166 3y agoWhat course of action doesn't come with a cost? Fixing things well is expensive but fixing things poorly is generally more expensive in the long run.
- thfuran 3y agoBut the point is that what fixing something well means depends on the context. Total software re-writes are rarely a good idea for large production systems, and software isn't special in that regard.
- jjk166 3y agoYeah, but we don't care about preserving the existing large production system, we explicitly want to switch to a different, more appropriate system.