OK, I’m coining a neologism:

———————
hyperkludge
———————

A hyperkludge is a design which is not a good solution for much of anything, but is a tolerably bad solution for so many things that it proliferates until network effects help it beat out better designs
Examples of hyperkludges:

wikis
email
HTML
CSV files
QWERTY
d20 TTRPGs
street addresses
alphabetical lists
hierarchical directories in computer file systems
tree controls for file system hierarchical directories
I almost didn’t include QWERTY as an example of a hyperkludge, since it originally was a pretty good solution to a problem which won out for pretty good reasons, but its power to crowd out much more appropriate solutions in contexts like a touchscreen kiosk makes it one
I was hoping that “hyperkludge” would be a useful descriptor but I am embarrassed that I did not register this. Of course.

https://twitter.com/umairh/status/1264270442841464832?s=21 https://twitter.com/umairh/status/1264270442841464832
I’m hoping that folks will point to other examples of hyperkludges
Facebook is a perfect example of a hyperkludge, as is more generally the Feed

https://twitter.com/jennifer_jj/status/1264274002564075521?s=21 https://twitter.com/jennifer_jj/status/1264274002564075521
Yes!

Unix software architecture is very comparable to QWERTY in being a smart solution to an old problem which turned out to be a hyperkludge just not quite bad enough to dislodge as it became outdated

https://twitter.com/mycoliza/status/1264276872096960513?s=21 https://twitter.com/mycoliza/status/1264276872096960513
A LOT of software standards are hyperkludges

https://twitter.com/burnsbothends/status/1264278019381907456?s=21 https://twitter.com/burnsbothends/status/1264278019381907456
I invite people more skilled in MS Excel to weigh in on whether it is bad enough to constitute a hyperkludge

https://twitter.com/burnsbothends/status/1264278484404363266?s=21 https://twitter.com/burnsbothends/status/1264278484404363266
The more popular the software solution, the more likely that it is hyperkludgy

https://twitter.com/reinh/status/1264280442577928192?s=21 https://twitter.com/ReinH/status/1264280442577928192
I think we can find a lot of examples of hyperkludges in public policy

https://twitter.com/looserooster/status/1264280841204588545?s=21 https://twitter.com/looserooster/status/1264280841204588545
Yes! Identifying something as a hyperkludge does not necessarily dimiss it. The term is meant to be descriptive.

https://twitter.com/smonkey/status/1264280423623913472?s=21 https://twitter.com/smonkey/status/1264280423623913472
Very characteristic of hyperkludges that they develop a body of skilled practitioners, support technologies, and cunning workarounds — and a cultural blindspot that it takes all this support to make them “good”

https://twitter.com/hueyyyyyyyyy/status/1264287422180925443?s=21 https://twitter.com/Hueyyyyyyyyy/status/1264287422180925443
I am embarrassed to have called out HTML as a hyperkludge but not CSS; if anything, CSS is an even better example of the pattern

https://twitter.com/malacandra/status/1264292052885356544?s=21 https://twitter.com/Malacandra/status/1264292052885356544
I think programming languages are a good example of how hyperkludginess enables their pervasiveness.

There are languages which are not hyperkludgy, but none of them have spread so far as C++ (or, say, Perl, gods help us all).

https://twitter.com/malacandra/status/1264292145810116608?s=21 https://twitter.com/Malacandra/status/1264292145810116608
A few respondents have observed that hyperkludges are at least a cousin to the famous maxim Worse Is Better.

I concur. Not all hyperkludges emerge simply from Worse Is Better, but the WIB principle tends to produce hyperkludges.

https://www.gwern.net/docs/www/www.dreamsongs.com/9f49b703dc3bdac3f85b1a7483a55dae8c84fe9c.html
I don’t have an informed opinion about whether MIDI constitutes a hyperkludge, but the suggestion surprises me not at all

https://twitter.com/bravojohnson5/status/1264298744557654016?s=21 https://twitter.com/bravojohnson5/status/1264298744557654016
A little thread about concepts that are cousins to hyperkludges:

Worse Is Better, frankenstacks, ....

https://twitter.com/vgr/status/1264299813769670656?s=21 https://twitter.com/vgr/status/1264299813769670656
I dare say that almost pervasive Microsoft solution is a hyperkludge

https://twitter.com/whichlights/status/1264301689454170115?s=21 https://twitter.com/whichlights/status/1264301689454170115
In order to qualify as a hyperkludge, more elegant solutions need to be available or at least possible (even if they are not well-known).

So tempting as it is, no, democracy is not a hyperkludge ... but the US Constitution CERTAINLY is.

https://twitter.com/wastetime/status/1264301622177325056?s=21 https://twitter.com/wastetime/status/1264301622177325056
Another proposed example of a hyperkludge where I do not have an informed opinion but I smell the ring of truth

https://twitter.com/whichlights/status/1264301366085922820?s=21 https://twitter.com/whichlights/status/1264301366085922820
The marvelous replies I am getting to this make me grateful for Twitter, for once
I have never gotten a good look at a Bloomberg Box but I am extremely unsurprised to see it proposed as an example of a hyperkludge

https://twitter.com/gphipps44/status/1264309109601579008?s=21 https://twitter.com/GPhipps44/status/1264309109601579008
One way that you know you are dealing with a hyperkludge

https://twitter.com/pavelasamsonov/status/1264311073039101958?s=21 https://twitter.com/PavelASamsonov/status/1264311073039101958
A great example of the hyperkludginess of US public policy

https://twitter.com/pavelasamsonov/status/1264311848163303425?s=21 https://twitter.com/PavelASamsonov/status/1264311848163303425
This is a great question.

Unix and the internal combustion engine are examples upthread of the elegance-through-vigorous-effort type. (I would add the whimsical example of the Marvel Universe.)

Decay is the more common case though.

https://twitter.com/mutualarising/status/1264316230774788100?s=21 https://twitter.com/MutualArising/status/1264316230774788100
A cheeky but correct example of a hyperkludge

https://twitter.com/murphmonkey/status/1264326732947107844?s=21 https://twitter.com/murphmonkey/status/1264326732947107844
Again, being a hyperkludge does not make a solution simply bad.

Email, for instance, is extremely hyperkludgy, but not simply bad.

https://twitter.com/flemn8r/status/1264329127085162496?s=21 https://twitter.com/Flemn8r/status/1264329127085162496
Bingo. Hyperkludginess emerges from a solution expanding far beyond its original target into places where it is a bad but ready solution.

https://twitter.com/murphmonkey/status/1264331759451283456?s=21 https://twitter.com/murphmonkey/status/1264331759451283456
Perfect example of a hyperkludge.

A few years ago I was describing the roots of a problem a client had to a young UX design colleague and wound up ranting my way back to the history of the telegraph to untangle it.

https://twitter.com/djinnius/status/1264335040713854976?s=21 https://twitter.com/djinnius/status/1264335040713854976
The dynamics which create the Lindy effect — things with a life expectancy which dramatically increases the longer they survive — also produce hyperkludges:

network effects, sunk cost, stack dependencies, et cetera

https://twitter.com/gdsimms/status/1264350827390500865?s=21 https://twitter.com/gdsimms/status/1264350827390500865
I take the point.

Some folks in replies have objected to calling HTML a hyperkludge, and while I disagree I understand how reasonable people may differ, since much of its hyperkludginess comes not of HTML itself but from its binding to an ecosystem.

https://twitter.com/dominictarr/status/1264356918471999489?s=21 https://twitter.com/dominictarr/status/1264356918471999489
A great example.

I think it is still a little too young to qualify as a fully-developed hyperkludge, but it is poised right on the cusp, with all the right ingredients.

https://twitter.com/hueyyyyyyyyy/status/1264336636168601600?s=21 https://twitter.com/Hueyyyyyyyyy/status/1264336636168601600
It’s science!

https://twitter.com/nicholdav/status/1264365589490999298?s=21 https://twitter.com/nicholdav/status/1264365589490999298
One of the best examples yet of a hyperkludge

https://twitter.com/innokate/status/1264384311043686400?s=21 https://twitter.com/innokate/status/1264384311043686400
Fascinating that Google Docs and MS Office can be hyperkludges in a very overlapping space

https://twitter.com/sbjohnsrpi/status/1264384408209051648?s=21 https://twitter.com/sbjohnsrpi/status/1264384408209051648
Yes, this is an interesting sibling of hyperkludges ... and many of these misapplied things develop into hyperkludges when their original use fades away

https://twitter.com/forgingtowards/status/1264386358690242568?s=21 https://twitter.com/forgingtowards/status/1264386358690242568
Perfect example of accelerating hyperkludginess over time

https://twitter.com/nburn42/status/1264387147831873537?s=21 https://twitter.com/nburn42/status/1264387147831873537
This little thread sharpens an important point about what distinguishes a hyperkludge:

it is used to do a lot of things which it does badly, but spreads because it can do so many things AT ALL

https://twitter.com/jholbo1/status/1264377498843807745?s=21 https://twitter.com/jholbo1/status/1264377498843807745
This is a great example of hyperkludginess.

Better voting systems are possible, but First Past The Post CAN be applied to almost every situation, so ....

https://twitter.com/nuttycom/status/1264399228345839616?s=21 https://twitter.com/nuttycom/status/1264399228345839616
I would at least say that US electrical plugs for AC power qualify as a hyperkludge, and it would not surprise me if this were true of other system elements I don’t know about

https://twitter.com/hishamzerriffi/status/1264582616755273728?s=21 https://twitter.com/hishamzerriffi/status/1264582616755273728
Simplicity is a way that hyperkludges often differ from ordinary kludges.

Often the basic mechanics of hyperkludges are simple ... but in a way which pushes complexity out to the application of them in practice.

https://twitter.com/thomascmost/status/1264567950318751747?s=21 https://twitter.com/thomascmost/status/1264567950318751747
A tidy example of a hyperkludge:

We know it is not good, but it solves a lot of problems badly but not too badly, so it is everywhere

https://twitter.com/nat0n/status/1264605929179406338?s=21 https://twitter.com/nat0n/status/1264605929179406338
Many hyperkludges are hyperkludgy because they are mostly used for things well outside the original design intent.

https://twitter.com/ykgoon/status/1264486718498979840?s=21 https://twitter.com/ykgoon/status/1264486718498979840
Feeds are definitely a hyperkludge:

a solution which is prevalent in part because it covers a range of problems, even though it addresses them badly

https://twitter.com/chronotope/status/1270047272940769280?s=21 https://twitter.com/Chronotope/status/1270047272940769280
Great thread about how Dungeons & Dragons is a hyperkludge ... and the deep cultural politics implied by that

https://twitter.com/ammourazz/status/1276629294043840513?s=21 https://twitter.com/ammourazz/status/1276629294043840513
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