I generally try to apply Chesterton's fence when dealing with inherited code.
"Chesterton's fence or Rhesus ladder?" is always a good question to have in mind.
6 Matching Annotations
- Feb 2025
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holzer.online holzer.online
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- May 2022
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news.ycombinator.com news.ycombinator.com
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Chesterton's fence/Rhesus ladder
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- Dec 2021
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srconstantin.wordpress.com srconstantin.wordpress.comRa2
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there’s a difference between proper epistemic humility and just plain cargo-culting
The distinction between Chesterton's fences and Rhesus ladders defined.
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The sensation of total unknowability
Ra ∋ Rhesus ladders https://hypothes.is/users/mrcolbyrussell?q=rhesus
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- Oct 2021
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thezvi.wordpress.com thezvi.wordpress.com
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Chesterson’s Fence investigation
Specifically, answering the queston "Chesterton's fence or Rhesus ladder?". See https://hypothes.is/a/viXUiPZOEeu5Ty9zljmwFg
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- Aug 2021
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astralcodexten.substack.com astralcodexten.substack.com
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The institutions through which Americans build have become biased against action rather than toward it. They’ve become, in political scientist Francis Fukuyama’s term, “vetocracies,” in which too many actors have veto rights over what gets built. That’s true in the federal government. It’s true in state and local governments. It’s even true in the private sector.
Antidotes:
- Carefully entrusting veto power to those who know the distinction between thoughtful caution as in the case of Chesterton's fence versus the kneejerk antidisestablishment response—similar to the case of the case of Rhesus ladders
- teaching the value of yes-anding over no-don'ting.
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