Rewrite Syndrome

ELI5 — The Vibe Check

Rewrite syndrome is the near-universal engineering urge to throw out existing code and start over. 'It would be so much cleaner if we rewrote it in Rust.' Two years later, you've rebuilt 80% of the old system, it has different bugs, and the old one still runs in production.

Real Talk

Rewrite syndrome is the tendency for engineering teams to propose full rewrites rather than incremental refactors, often underestimating the complexity encoded in the existing system. Famous case studies (Netscape, Basecamp, Digg) show rewrites frequently fail. Preferred alternatives: strangler fig pattern, incremental modernization, and bounded refactors.

When You'll Hear This

"Classic rewrite syndrome — don't. Use strangler fig." / "Every new hire gets rewrite syndrome in week two."