Hacker News Reader

How does that detract from the point? They are arguing for a sort of "code deletion" and "refactoring" of laws. A far superior way of maintaining a codebase.

Not just "ADD MORE LINES OF CODE", which you make sound is like some concrete reality of how things always get done. It's not. And no one should strive to do things this way.

View on HN

Except real life isn't as simple as even the largest repos of code. There are edge cases that deal with morality and ethics rather than if and for statements.

Adding more lines of code is something that you can control and do right now. Changing the world so you do not have to do that takes significantly more time and effort.

In other words, growing complexity of the system to deal with new cases is past of least resistance.

If we always followed that logic we'd still be using first gen OS from the 1970's, or perhaps we'd still be using the Code of Hammurabi. Reevaluating legacy systems in the face of paradigm shift is a crucial part of natural evolution.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com