paper · 1968
Garrett Hardin · read the source
“Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all.”
Garrett Hardin, The Tragedy of the Commons (1968) · Section on the tragedy · read it
Kept for its compression. Each herdsman gains the whole benefit of one more animal and bears a fraction of the cost, so each adds one, and the pasture dies. The sentence applies to shared test suites and on-call rotas as well as pastures.
“It is our considered professional judgment that this dilemma has no technical solution.”
Garrett Hardin, The Tragedy of the Commons (1968) · Opening, quoting Wiesner and York on the arms race · read it
Kept because the whole paper is built on a borrowed sentence about something else. Some problems are shaped so that a better machine cannot fix them, only a change in the rules. Knowing which kind you face saves a great deal of engineering.
