Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Great article!

Reminded me of the "Leave as you found" rule:

Say you're hiking through some fields, and come upon a fence. If it's open, don't close it. If it's closed, don't pass through leaving it open.

Why? Because building a fence takes effort. Maintaining it too. And if whoever built that fence left it open, probably had a good reason to do so.

Read: until you understand why it's there & in the state it's in, don't mess with that. If you do know who put the thing there & how it's used, then by all means have at it.

And the detective work here: hacker spirit in optima forma! Kudoz to the author.



This is more specifically known as Chesterton’s Fence:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesterton%27s_fence




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: