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Whoever built the fence should have put a sign on it saying why. Oh, and integration tests to check that the problem doesn't recur when the fence is replaced.
by kps 4mo ago
Whoever built the fence should have put a sign on it saying why.
Oh, and integration tests to check that the problem doesn't recur when the fence is replaced.
- tshaddox 4mo agoAdvocates of Chesterton’s Fence tend to miss that they’re applying selective pressure to favor systems that fail to document (or outright obscure) their purpose. Of course, the much more obvious flaw of Chesterton’s Fence is that it trivially reduces to status quo bias.
- jmcqk6 4mo agoI don't think you've understood the lesson here. Chesterton's fence is not about keeping systems in place. It is about how you approach changing the system.
- tshaddox 4mo agoI understand it. Just like the precautionary principle, it’s bad epistemology and bad advice. It doesn’t provide any guidance on how much research is necessary before removing any specific fence. The most charitable interpretation is “don’t remove a fence until you do a sufficient amount of research into why the fence was built,” which is tautological and useless.
- jmcqk6 4mo agoWhy does it need to provide guidance about that? It's one step along the way of cultivating wisdom, not the destination.
- ndr 4mo agoContext is that which is scarce. It's hard to predict what parts of shared understanding we have today is going to be scarce tomorrow. And one can't serialize _all_ of that current shared understanding in documents and integration tests. https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2021/12/context-is-that-which-is-scarce.html https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2021/12/co...