https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17764576 - August 2018, 12 comments

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13959999 - March 2017, 11 comments

Related rules of thumb, from the conclusion of James C. Scott's Seeing Like a State (pages 344–45 in my version):

- Plan on surprises.

- Plan on human inventiveness.

- Favor reversibility.

- Take small steps; stand back; and observe before doing more.

Buffer, optionality, advantageous smallness, and bricolage are our watchwords.

"It is impossible to legislate for the future." —Prince Peter Kropotkin

"The first rule of intelligent tinkering is to keep all the parts." —Aldo Leopold

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See also Gall's Law.