Y’know that thing where you have this kinda complex, technical system all sorted out, accommodating the various needs of many involved users, and you have it tuned, and working like a Swiss watch for months and months and months, and nobody else cares to know how it’s all set up, because no time / no interest / too technical / >lame excuse here< but you made decent documentation and put it in the archive against the fateful day...
...and then someone came along without asking, knowing this system was in place and functional, but too smart by half for their own good, thinking they were going to make a good thing better...
[cue the ominous, minor key music, here]
...and they took the archive offline...
[more ominous music]
...and on their oblivious way to tech Nirvana, they cratered the system.
[crescendo of crashing cymbals, thundering tympani, blaring horns — sudden silence]
...and now you’re The Bad Guy because you made a Swiss watch that met everyone’s needs but wasn’t fool-proof?
You allowed the evolution of a more perfect idiot.
You’ve managed to build a better mouse?
Fool proof systems regularly underestimate the ingenuity of fools.
I haven’t been put in that situation because I don’t make useful things. I’m just a PM.
Yeah.
That’s a “tazer the child” moment if ever there was one.
(And yes, the idiot is indeed a child.)
Been there, done that. Lost a couple of clients because of it.