In many cases it isn't. As long as technological innovation doesn't slow down this attitude will haunt a company/individual/nation. Chesterton's fence is about

In many cases it isn't. As long as technological innovation doesn't slow down this attitude will haunt a company/individual/nation. Chesterton's fence is about knocking over established things without knowing why you are doing so. In engineering there are often good reasons to try new things, so you need some willingness to leave behind what you known. Germany is still the third largest economy in the world, if it wants to remain there it needs to be able to adapt. German companies are definitely suffering from having large parts of the organization with people with that attitude, who don't want to learn new things and who don't even want to know if there might be a better way.