definition
Verschlimmbesserung and Chesterton's Fence
The German word 'Verschlimmbesserung'—making something worse by trying to improve it—captures a frequent real-world phenomenon related to Chesterton's Fence: people don't know which parts of a large system encode important cultural or technical understanding versus which exist only because the system was built in a hurry.
definitionpending
Speaker
Tobi LütkeEvidence Quote
“by trying to improve something, you made it worse.”
Created: 6/13/2026, 3:32:50 AM
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