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    Chesterton’s fence? Commented Jul 10, 2025 at 16:53
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    @D.BenKnoble I've linked explanations of Chesterton's fence enough times to have a URL memorised: it doesn't seem to have much effect. Commented Jul 10, 2025 at 19:59
  • Thanks for the link; I couldn’t find one I liked. Commented Jul 10, 2025 at 20:35
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    Do not implement any of these proposals. I agree. Unfortunately there are shareholders to keep happy. newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/the-pulse-134 Commented Jul 11, 2025 at 9:03
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    I think they try to save the SO by sacrificing the rest of the network. It clearly doomed to fail: they will sacrifice the rest of the network, but won't save the SO. Beside that, not that they won't do anything in the code, only in the design. That is because their system is already far too rigid to any changes, except the most superficial ones. So they do a design change to give some month of survival to the SO, or to tune their last yearly budget report, then.... flood is after them. That is what I see, I hope I won't be right. Commented Jul 11, 2025 at 14:54
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    It's been clear for years that the majority of the management at SE Inc. are fundamentally, brutally, offensively incompetent. This is merely yet another example. Commented Jul 16, 2025 at 15:29
  • @D.BenKnoble Isn't the problem with Chesterton's fence that respecting it makes meaningless nonsense impossible to remove? Commented Aug 5, 2025 at 8:18
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    @candied_orange A process of due diligence can rule out the "meaningless nonsense" explanation. At a certain point, that becomes the most likely explanation: but you shouldn't just assume that right away. (Putting up a fence takes time and effort, so unless it's an art project or something, there's probably a reason the fence was put there.) Commented Aug 5, 2025 at 9:52
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    @wizz this was a good Chesterton quote in the latest Gilbert magazine "We are learning to do a great many clever things. Unless we are much mistaken the next great task will be to learn not to do them" Commented Aug 12, 2025 at 20:29