Comment by trescenzi
3 years ago
I can totally see how a bad faith interpretation could lead to “Chesterton’s big fucking infinite barrier”. And of course bad faith interpretations abound in politics.
It reminds me of people I’ve worked with who will always bring up edge cases in any discussion. They use their “ability” to identify edge cases to shut down conversation and present themselves as the smartest in the room. If they can think of ways this design might fail of course they must be the most qualified to do the design right? It really has a chilling effect on teams and has, in my experience, lead to really bad technical decisions.
I fully agree about the potential for bad faith interpretations of Chesterson’s fence, and I’ve encountered them a lot.
But regarding edge cases, I’ve come to see that type of person in a different light. The way I see it, edge cases pressure test the design. Some edge cases we just don’t care about, and when someone raises them, we put them on a published list of non-goals. This acknowledges that they exist and shuts down future naysayers. But sometimes an edge case ends up mattering a lot; enough to change the direction of the design. And for that reason, I welcome the edge case hunters. If managed, it becomes a valuable source of feedback and strengthens the overall design.
But to your point, this type of individual can sidetrack the team if not managed. Having processes in place and tactics to incorporate the concern without getting stuck on it is critical, and not always easy.
In this regard, I think it’s a bit different than the fence. The fence is a barrier that already exists, while the pessimistic edge case finder is trying to build fences that don’t yet exist.
If you are unable to identify an edge case, how can you possibly determine if it is important?
Wait, are you saying that if Alice learns of an edge case by having it pointed out to them by Bob then Alice is a priori unqualified to analyze whether the edge case is important?
I guess GP meant, if Alice doesn't know about the edge case, she can't analyze it.
Ah, the nitpicking contest. I know it well :( My solution is to bluntly and quickly ask for a likelihood estimation. If the nitpicker can't tell, they have to find out for the next discussion. Until then it is shelved. If it is below 80% it is shelved until it becomes more salient.
That led to a few interesting developments. 1) participants say their edge case and immediatly shelf it themselves. 2) Or, they come prepared with good reasoning why case X is important and must be treated now. Discussion itself became more constructive, too. In any case a win!
You just opened my mind that I did this to somebody at a conference a month ago. Perfect is the enemy of good I guess.