‘Laws’ of Software Development

Do what is simplest, and remember, everyone is attacking you with stupidity. Most of your simple work will be done quickly, a small amount will be done in the time remaining. You will think you are better at doing all this than you are. To wit, seek the help of others to talk you down-- accept things from others. You'll need it because eventually you become a stranger even to yourself. And from there you'll rise to the level of stupidity you detested not too long ago. Or maybe some unwise fool will intercede on your behalf, dragging you up to their level of idiocy. This will all take longer than you think, because all along the way you underestimated your skills, but don't worry there'll be plenty of work to fill the time. Most of it will be petty, and you'll fight over the least essential things, but that's because you chose to work in a field full of smart people who continually underestimate their abilities.

Quoting wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robustness_principle:

> In RFC 3117, Marshall Rose characterized several deployment problems when applying Postel's principle in the design of a new application protocol.[3] For example, a defective implementation that sends non-conforming messages might be used only with implementations that tolerate those deviations from the specification until, possibly several years later, it is connected with a less tolerant application that rejects its messages. In such a situation, identifying the problem is often difficult, and deploying a solution can be costly. Rose therefore recommended "explicit consistency checks in a protocol ... even if they impose implementation overhead".