Post #2076926
2026-05-05 05:27 UTC
TIL about Chesterton's Fence:
“Do not remove a fence until you know why it was put up in the first place.”
It's something I wish Do-ocracy driven organizations whould adopt as a principle. Not as an absolute, but if you cannot answer that question yourself, it's probably a good idea to ask around before arbitrarily changing something just because that something doesn't make sense to you. After my all, understanding things is fun, and here would avoid much frustration.
Replies (3)
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@danimo@chaos.social 2026-05-05 05:52
Like nobody likes fences. They are mostly ugly and sorta, well, in the way of things (or rather people, i.e. you), but if you find a fence, probably set up in weirdly specific place, *maybe* there is a reason? It might not be the best solution, but you can only find a better one if you understand what the fence is supposed to accomplish in the first place.
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@henryk@chaos.social 2026-05-05 06:51
@danimo (This is a subtoot about rust coreutils:)
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@Merovius@chaos.social 2026-05-05 07:24
@danimo @marix Woran das in meiner Erfahrung scheitert, ist das meistens niemand weiß, warum Dinge so sind, wie sie sind. i.e. die meisten Organisationen sind schlecht darin, ihre Entscheidungen – oder auch nur ihre Entscheidungsprozesse – zu dokumentieren.