Every New Feature is a New Failure Point

 

The TPMS warning light on my car dashboard is lit up, which, according to the owner’s manual, indicates a malfunction in the Tire Pressure Monitoring System, a system designed to alert me, via a different warning light, when the tire pressure gets too low.

It’s a completely unnecessary system to begin with because I can monitor the tire pressure myself, as drivers have done since the invention of the automobile.

Let’s add a completely unnecessary new system so when it breaks, the owner will have to pay to fix it.

Can I just ignore the warning light? I don’t know. The worst-case scenario is that the TPMS not only breaks but creates a domino effect that knocks out a critical system that I actually need.

Toilers in software development can draw their own analogies . . .

Thus spoke The Programmer.

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