“Code is not an infinitely reproducible machine that requires no labor inputs to operate.
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“Code is not an infinitely reproducible machine that requires no labor inputs to operate. Rather, it is a brittle machine that requires increasingly heroic measures to keep it in good working order, and which eventually does "wear out" (in the sense of needing a top-to-bottom refactoring).”
— @pluralistic, https://pluralistic.net/2026/01/06/1000x-liability/#graceful-failure-modes
The myth that "old code doesn't rust" persists because it justifies moving fast, breaking things, and leaving it for someone else to clean up the mess.
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“Code is not an infinitely reproducible machine that requires no labor inputs to operate. Rather, it is a brittle machine that requires increasingly heroic measures to keep it in good working order, and which eventually does "wear out" (in the sense of needing a top-to-bottom refactoring).”
— @pluralistic, https://pluralistic.net/2026/01/06/1000x-liability/#graceful-failure-modes
The myth that "old code doesn't rust" persists because it justifies moving fast, breaking things, and leaving it for someone else to clean up the mess.
Speaking of the fragility of enterprise software… Here's the robust architecture of an online banking system I used to lead. 3.5 million people trusted this with their life savings.
That TUI app written in MUMPS(!) once powered the terminal a bank teller would use to process an in-person transaction. It embodies and unambiguously encodes every business rule for transactions that have been developed over decades.
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P Pteryx the Puzzle Secretary shared this topic
