The "Bath Tub" Maintenance Curve Explained

(via https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44390781#44396389)

The "Bathtub Curve" was an eye-opener for me.

As an engineer and a nitpicker, I spent most of my life looking for optima. What's the BEST stand mixer on the market? Which product had the best combination of features? Etc.

The bathtub curve describes systems where either extreme is undesirable, with a nice, stable, slow-changing center (so, like a cutaway bathtub, "Badness" is high on both ends, and fairly flat in the middle). In these systems, the optimal point isn't really important - so long as you stay away from the extrema, you're pretty good.

It's been helpful for me in reframing things generally... Does a 0.1% improvement in metrical quality really mean anything? Or could I have just gone with the good-enough option, and used that spare time to cuddle my dogs?

If Bryan Cantrill shouts loudly enough at a pod of hard drives, does their Bath Tub Curve reset?

site appears broken?

Something has gone wrong with your visit to this site. Try reloading the page as the site is up and running... we just need to get you to where you want to go.