The Count to 3 Principle
[heuristics]
Paradoxically, one way to master the power of a tool is to probe its weaknesses. Thus, we offer the Count-to-Three Principle:
If you cannot think of three ways of abusing a tool, you do not understand how to use it.
Faithful adherence to this principle would protect us from the enthusiasm of the optimizers, maximizers, and other species of perfectionnists — but mostly from ourselves.
Jerry Weinberg — An Introduction to General Systems Thinking — 1975
(traduction laissée en exercice au lecteur ou à ses outils).
