From Chesterton's fence to Chesterton's gap

G.K. Chesterton's famous principle urges people to understand the reasoning behind existing systems before changing them, but the author identifies a modern problem called "Chesterton's gap"—where developers build unsolicited features and solutions in open-source projects without asking if they're needed. While these contributions are well-intentioned and well-built, they add unnecessary complexity; the author argues that if a feature wasn't added by the project maintainer, there's likely a good reason, and contributors should ask first rather than assume.