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GK Chesterton’s Fence and the Problem of Automation

This is a great piece about the problem of automation. It relies on understanding the role which processes and objects serve within organisations, which is rarely the case for people making decisions about automation:

Here it’s worth remembering a heuristic inspired by writer G. K. Chesterton. In his 1929 book “The Thing,” Chesterton recounts the case of the reformer who notices a fence, but fails to see the reason for its existence. 

Chesterton explains that the fence didn’t grow out of the ground; each was planned and built by people who identified a need for one. We need to understand what that need is. Removing a fence without understanding why it was built in the first place risks second-order effects that cause damage later on.

Chesterton’s Fence is why user research acts as a crucial filter. It sheds light on tasks ripe for automation, but also on essential context like regulation or unintended consequences that automation could worsen. 

https://www.reworked.co/digital-workplace/to-automate-effectively-we-need-to-understand-humans-better/
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