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(2014)

Fwiw, sinks have overflows: https://www.thespruce.com/the-purpose-of-a-sink-overflow-271...

The computer equivalent is probably load shedding

The sink overflow goes to the same drain, so it doesn't really work in this analogy! (Or it works very well, depending on your perspective).

The overflow goes to the same drain, but further down, past a bottleneck that's designed to be there for a logical reason. It's a good example of real world flow control considerations vs paper theory.

Continuing the analogy from the article though, the sink overflow doesn't go past the red arrow in their diagrams. It's there to solve the specific problem of "the sink drain is plugged, either because you left the water running with the plug in or because there's a ball of hair immediately below the drain".

Indeed, if the clog is big/deep enough, the overflow won't work at all.[1]

[1]: Flooded 4 floors of a five-star hotel by puking in a sink and falling asleep before turning the water off.

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