Farley on Nostr: Backward compatibility protects users. It also defers complexity. Deferred complexity ...
Backward compatibility protects users.
It also defers complexity.
Deferred complexity doesn’t disappear —
it compounds.
Legacy paths grow cold.
Fewer devs have skin in the game.
Migrations get rarer, riskier, and louder.
The lesson isn’t “break compatibility.”
It’s this:
Exercise migrations while they’re common.
Design failures to fail safe.
Never let cleanup delete more than intent.
Future devs: carry the past,
but don’t let it fossilize.
Published at
2026-01-20 19:34:00 UTCEvent JSON
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"content": "Backward compatibility protects users.\nIt also defers complexity.\n\nDeferred complexity doesn’t disappear —\nit compounds.\n\nLegacy paths grow cold.\nFewer devs have skin in the game.\nMigrations get rarer, riskier, and louder.\n\nThe lesson isn’t “break compatibility.”\n\nIt’s this:\nExercise migrations while they’re common.\nDesign failures to fail safe.\nNever let cleanup delete more than intent.\n\nFuture devs: carry the past,\nbut don’t let it fossilize.",
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