This month I want to discuss an article Chesterton’s Fence: A Lesson in Second Order Thinking (author unknown). This article describes the principle: reforms should not be made until the reasoning behind the existing state of affairs is understood. We see this principle reflected in many areas of our professional lives. For example, one Amazon Principal Engineer tenet is “Respect What Came Before.” This lesson, borne from years of wisdom, does not advocate blindly maintain the status quo, but instead to understand why before moving forward. Through understanding we unlock second order thinking, and are capable of making high judgement decisions that keep our products, businesses, careers, and lives productively moving forward.

https://fs.blog/2020/03/chestertons-fence

“Chesterton also alluded to the all-too-common belief that previous generations were bumbling fools, stumbling around, constructing fences wherever they fancied. Should we fail to respect their judgement and not try to understand it, we run the risk of creating new, unexpected problems. By and large, people do not do things for no reason. We’re all lazy at heart. We don’t like to waste time and resources on useless fences. Not understanding something does not mean it must be pointless.”