Pattern

Second-System Effect

The replacement for a successful small system tends to be over-built.

How to use it. On any rewrite, list every feature you plan to include. Ask which ones would survive a serious "do we really need this" review. Most will not.

How it gets misused. Used to refuse all rewrites. Sometimes systems genuinely have to be replaced. Gall's Law and the Second-System Effect are warnings about how to do a rewrite.

Pattern Gall's Law Complicated systems that work always grew out of simple systems that worked.

Second-System Effect

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