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If you could somehow track the frequency spectrum of usage, then you could mostly handle that problem. "Oh, the frequency spectrum strongly peaks at about once a week? I guess users regularly need to use this feature. Probably important somehow." vs "Huh, the frequency spectrum isn't strongly peaked anywhere, but is substantially lower at high frequencies. We can probably remove this."

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Imagine a time keeping system where employees regularly enter their hours and schedule time off. But somewhere is a button or screen that gets used once a week called "run payroll". Aside from being periodic and not available to everyone, no metrics can capture how important it is.

Never the less, my favorite thing to do with code is running over it with the delete key. Just be careful about what gets it ;-)

that's a great example!

And this is why the users are the ultimate deciders - or at least should be - what features ought to be removed, rather than the developers.

I think the parent means that the mean time between podcast deletions is two weeks, not that they are spread exactly two weeks apart. If the deletions are random but on average every two weeks, then your frequency spectrum will show nothing meaningful either.

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