#chestertonsfence — Public Fediverse posts

There's a metaphor called "Chesterton's Fence.

The Trump Administration are living examples of why the metaphor exists. They continually shut down systems and departments without having the first idea regarding what the system or department actually does, or why it was set up in the first place, consequences be damned.

The best result is the reversal of the decision, involving spending three times as much money to re-establish what was dismantled.

The worst is a shrug of the shoulders and a blithe "Oh well."

#USPol
#ChestertonsFence #NSF #OOI #Climate #Ocean

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/18/ocean-monitoring-system-reversal-trump-administration

There's a metaphor called "Chesterton's Fence.

The Trump Administration are living examples of why the metaphor exists. They continually shut down systems and departments without having the first idea regarding what the system or department actually does, or why it was set up in the first place, consequences be damned.

The best result is the reversal of the decision, involving spending three times as much money to re-establish what was dismantled.

The worst is a shrug of the shoulders and a blithe "Oh well."

#USPol
#ChestertonsFence #NSF #OOI #Climate #Ocean

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/18/ocean-monitoring-system-reversal-trump-administration

@prozacchiwawa @Seg

This is a drum I've been beating like the village idiot for years now.

I see a lot of factors:

• the insane growth and popularity of iOS circa 2009-2015 meant that the iOS team dominated over the Mac team, and MacOS started imitating iOS as a kind of compensation (or for any other numerous, but spurious reasons)
  • iOS' design was great for a touch device. Not perfect, probably not as good as MacOS X for keyboard/mouse, but definitely one of the most intuitive touch interfaces. It makes for a crappy keyboard/mouse interface, particularly with the stupidly thin, buttonless, and disappearing scrollbars (I don't think scrollbars should disappear, even on mobile. They're an important marker for the size and position of the viewport)
• The engineers, developers, and designers that laid the foundational principles for UI design in the 80s-2000s have almost all retired, or were simply ignored
• Chesterton's Fence. If you haven't heard of it, the pertinent quote, prominently displayed in a blockquote on that page, is only 235 words long. Please read it. It's a very important principle

So yeah, younger designers got in, said, "Oh my, my, doesn't that all look so fusty! I'm gonna make it ALL better!"

And there we have "Liquid Ass," and the disease spreads to Windows and Linux desktops.

#ChestertonsFence #UIDesign #Devolution #LiquidAss

@prozacchiwawa @Seg

This is a drum I've been beating like the village idiot for years now.

I see a lot of factors:

• the insane growth and popularity of iOS circa 2009-2015 meant that the iOS team dominated over the Mac team, and MacOS started imitating iOS as a kind of compensation (or for any other numerous, but spurious reasons)
  • iOS' design was great for a touch device. Not perfect, probably not as good as MacOS X for keyboard/mouse, but definitely one of the most intuitive touch interfaces. It makes for a crappy keyboard/mouse interface, particularly with the stupidly thin, buttonless, and disappearing scrollbars (I don't think scrollbars should disappear, even on mobile. They're an important marker for the size and position of the viewport)
• The engineers, developers, and designers that laid the foundational principles for UI design in the 80s-2000s have almost all retired, or were simply ignored
• Chesterton's Fence. If you haven't heard of it, the pertinent quote, prominently displayed in a blockquote on that page, is only 235 words long. Please read it. It's a very important principle

So yeah, younger designers got in, said, "Oh my, my, doesn't that all look so fusty! I'm gonna make it ALL better!"

And there we have "Liquid Ass," and the disease spreads to Windows and Linux desktops.

#ChestertonsFence #UIDesign #Devolution #LiquidAss

@joel

G.K. Chesterton, Catholic apologist and novelist.

Normally, I'm quite allergic to conservative/traditionalist things, but I've been interested in him lately because of "Chesterton's Fence."

#ChestertonsFence

@joel

G.K. Chesterton, Catholic apologist and novelist.

Normally, I'm quite allergic to conservative/traditionalist things, but I've been interested in him lately because of "Chesterton's Fence."

#ChestertonsFence

@davidgerard

It's the hubris that gets me.

"Look at all this complexity! What purpose does it serve? Let us clear it all away and start fresh, and create a clean, fast replacement for all of this!"

Chesterton's coreutils.

#Chesterton #coreutils #ChestertonsFence

@davidgerard

It's the hubris that gets me.

"Look at all this complexity! What purpose does it serve? Let us clear it all away and start fresh, and create a clean, fast replacement for all of this!"

Chesterton's coreutils.

#Chesterton #coreutils #ChestertonsFence

Ich habe gerade zum ersten Mal von „Chesterton‘s Fence“ gehört.

„Entferne niemals einen Zaun, bis du weißt, warum er überhaupt errichtet wurde.“

https://fs.blog/chestertons-fence/

#TIL #ChestertonsFence

"Chesterton's Fence":

There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, “I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.” To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: “If you don’t see the use of it, I certainly won’t let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it.”

— https://fs.blog/chestertons-fence/

#ChestertonsFence #CoreUtils #Rewrite #UIDesign

P.S. Credit for introducing me to this term: https://chaos.social/@ChuckMcManis/116517200212865151
cc: @ChuckMcManis

"Chesterton's Fence":

There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, “I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.” To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: “If you don’t see the use of it, I certainly won’t let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it.”

— https://fs.blog/chestertons-fence/

#ChestertonsFence #CoreUtils #Rewrite #UIDesign

P.S. Credit for introducing me to this term: https://chaos.social/@ChuckMcManis/116517200212865151
cc: @ChuckMcManis

The choice of language isn't going to help much if the people writing the rusty replacements for decades-old tools don't bother to understand the security issues and attack surfaces that led to the design of those tools in the first place.

Similarly, Linux distributions shipping #screensaver implementations that are essentially nothing but a login-bypass mechanism that wastes CPU/GPU cycles.

#Rust #C #secure #design #tool #software #XScreenSaver #attack #Chesterton #ChestertonsFence #fence

The choice of language isn't going to help much if the people writing the rusty replacements for decades-old tools don't bother to understand the security issues and attack surfaces that led to the design of those tools in the first place.

Similarly, Linux distributions shipping #screensaver implementations that are essentially nothing but a login-bypass mechanism that wastes CPU/GPU cycles.

#Rust #C #secure #design #tool #software #XScreenSaver #attack #Chesterton #ChestertonsFence #fence

It is wonderful to learn from the well respected and experienced #HarshMariwala #Chairman #Marico

5 #laws for founders
1. #ParkinsonsLaw : Time is elastic. Discipline is your edge.
2. #ChestertonsFence : Innovate, yes; but understand what you’re changing.
3. #LawofDiminishingReturns : Don’t brute-force growth. Calibrate it
4. #ParetoPrinciple : Not everything matters equally. Focus sharply.
5. #OccamsRazor : Simple scales. Simple sells. Simple succeeds.

Source : #HarshMariwala #LinkedIn

@dianea A case of #ChestertonsFence 😂 https://fs.blog/chestertons-fence/

@dianea A case of #ChestertonsFence 😂 https://fs.blog/chestertons-fence/

thinking of #ChestertonsFence a lot these days.

thinking of #ChestertonsFence a lot these days.

@offby1

Thanks for this.

While not as pithy as the article you posted, I found this one 3 or 4 years ago and have re-read it a few times.

It helps provide a bit perspective when I get into "burn it all down mode" on some of my projects. Or, conversely, when I see myself being curmudgeonly resistant to some new practice. YMMV

https://fs.blog/chestertons-fence/

#ChestertonsFence #DecisionMaking

@jamie As with anything in life, you might also just not have done a good job in understanding the why. Then it's sparkling reinvention syndrome. #chestertonsfence

I read The Book of Trespass for my Green book group this week and it reminded me of a meme I made juxtaposing two quotes about boundaries. 🧵

https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/book-of-trespass-9781526604729/

#ChestertonsFence #ProcessOptimization #PolicyChange #ProcessImprovement

I read The Book of Trespass for my Green book group this week and it reminded me of a meme I made juxtaposing two quotes about boundaries. 🧵

https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/book-of-trespass-9781526604729/

#ChestertonsFence #ProcessOptimization #PolicyChange #ProcessImprovement