Accidentally Load Bearing
Huh. Finally a name for it.<p>I do a lot of support work for Control Systems. It isn&#x27;t unheard to find a chunk of PLC code that treats some sort of physical equipment in a unique way that unintentionally creates problems. I like to parrot a line I heard elsewhere: &quot;Every time Software is used to fix a [Electrical&#x2F;Mechanical] problem, a Gremlin is born&quot;.<p>But often enough when I find a root cause of a bug, or some sort of programmed limitation, the client wants removed. I always refuse until I can find out <i>why</i> that code exists. Nobody puts code in there for no reason, so I need to know why we have a timer, or an override in the first place. Often the answer is the problem it was solving no longer exists, and that&#x27;s excellent, but for all the times where that code was put there to prevent something from happening and the client had a bunch of staff turnover, the original purpose is lost. Without documentation telling me why it was done that way I&#x27;m very cautious to immediately undo someone else&#x27;s work.<p>I suppose the other aspect is knowing that I trust my coworkers. They don&#x27;t (typically) do something for no good reason. If it is in there, it is there for a purpose and I must trust my coworkers to have done their due diligence in the first place. If that trust breaks down then everything becomes more difficult to make decisions on.