Yep, really the disease is taking ANY such rule or heuristic and interpreting it to be valid in all situations or in an extreme form. The last paragraph is the

Yep, really the disease is taking ANY such rule or heuristic and interpreting it to be valid in all situations or in an extreme form. The last paragraph is the simplest and most effective solution - start asking specific (well defined) questions about your system (not all systems or some other bloggers) and suddenly there is no need for any of these bullshit heuristics. I love this approach, its the heart of engineering right here.