I follow an architecture principle I call The Law of Collective Amnesia I follow an architecture principle I call The Law of Collective Amnesia. Over time, everyone (including yourself) forgets the …

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Software systems inevitably drift from their original design as teams change and new requirements emerge. To combat this "collective amnesia," design systems where the correct architectural path is the easiest one to follow. Use contracts as constraints, control entry/exit points, build modular interfaces from day one, and assume future developers won't understand or follow your intentions. Documentation alone won't prevent architectural decay—structural guardrails that make the right choice the path of least resistance will.

I follow an architecture principle I call The Law of Collective Amnesia

📠 How Good Systems Become Legacy Nightmares

👮 How to Defend Architecture from Collective Amnesia

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🚧 Architectural Guardrails: Make the Right Path the Easy Path

🔏 Contracts as Constraints, Not Convenience

🚪 Control Ingress and Egress to Control Evolution

🧩 Design for Change, Not Today’s Requirements

🧠 Final Thoughts: Assume Intent Will Be Forgotten

Just imagine everybody interacting with the codebase is a moron.
I love this principle, its how i work with my adhd as well. If i want something to be done by me i have to shape my environment in a way that i cannot not do it. For example i want to weigh myself everyday, for this reason i put my scale in plain sight where i cannot walk past it without seeing it.

Great article. ok, what shoud we do?

I’m working in a company where I write projects startups, write documentation, talk to people about pattern and system architectures.
The results? Some people don’t follow the rules and the pattern because they don’t care about that, they don’t care about the company and about their job. They always choose the most easy way to “develop” some task and the result is a constant-fight against these colleagues.
… and the company doesn’t care so much about that because “quantity is always more important than quality” 😔