There are a certain set of settings that we set once and then we forget why we set them. Recently, I ran into an issue where localhost does not resolve (consistently) to 127.0.0.1 on my local machine. A quick diagnostic revealed that it has something to do with the DNS resolver, and specifically, something to do with pointing it to 8.8.8.8. At some point I stopped digging because it’s not worth the time to untangle the why – I simply needed to unblock myself.
These occurrences, that is discovering my esoteric actions in the past, happen a few times a year, and a few year gap between in each morphotype. I’ve tried a few different solutions, from leaving comments inline (I don’t have the foresight of knowledge), to jotting down in notes (which now creates an all-encompassing chore), and nothing quite works. I then either spend hours trying to understand the system again or unblock myself to the extent necessary.
The thing though is that I am a proponent of software customization. Settings are good! We should be able to change things to suit our needs. The question is customization creates an exception case, and when that exception meets the mainstream and our memory fails us, how do we gracefully resolve them. That is, ensuring that the intent of the change is honored while paving a path forward for whatever that needs to get done.
Design thinking loves happy paths. It does make me wonder, what does the design literature and the collective intelligence have to say about this. What is the best way to handle plurality in systems?