Suppose there is a fence erected in the middle of nowhere that's blocking your path. What do you do? Do you take it down in order to continue on your way, or do you first think hard about why it is there to begin with? Chesterton's fence is a simple rule of thumb that suggests that you should never destroy a fence, change a rule, or do away with a tradition until you understand why it's there in the first place. The principal assumes that fences have a purpose, were carefully planned, and cost time and money to erect. Someone must have had a reason for thinking that a fence will be a good idea. So what if we just take them down? Entrepreneurs Steve Blank likes to point out that when startups get their first chief financial officer, they're newly hired, often wants to show that they are proactive and can cut costs. Some go as far as calculating the expense of the free snacks offered to employees, and then start charging the staff as small fee. People can of course pay, but they don't like this change in company culture, and many may quit. As a result, the firm makes pennies on the nuts, but spends thousands hiring new engineers, all because the reformer didn't understand the purpose of the policy he asked. A more tragic example of misguided reform was China's so-called Great Leap Forward, which lasted from 1958 to 1962. One of its initiatives was the Four Pests campaign to eliminate all mosquitoes, flies, rats, and even sparrows that were suspected of stealing grain from the fields. And so millions of people hit noisy pots and pans to prevent sparrows from resting, with the goal of causing them to drop dead from exhaustion. Some simply shot the birds down from the sky, others destroyed their nests and broke their eggs. The campaign worked and pushed the Chinese sparrow population to near extinction. So what about the unintended consequences? With no sparrows to eat them, locust populations ballooned, swarming the country, and compounding the problems caused by other reforms. The consequence was the Great Chinese famine, one of the largest man-made disasters in human history, with a death toll in the tens of millions. Perhaps all those who want to break with traditions or reform norms should learn to recite this short line from philosopher F.K. Chesterton's original 1929 writing. In the matter of reforming things, as distinct from deforming them, there is one plain and simple principle. Let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate is erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes up to it and says, I don't see the use of this, let us clear it away. To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer, if you don't see the use of it, I certainly won't let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it. What do you think? Is Chesterton's defensive conservatism a good rule to live by? Or do you also need people to break down old structures, even if they don't fully understand why they were built in the first place? Share your thoughts in the comments below. If you like how we explain complicated ideas in simple cartoon animation, you can support us. Visit patreon.com slash sprouts. Just visit us, learn how it works and what's in it for you. We hope to see you there. And if you are a parent or educator, check out our website, SproutSchools.com. There you can find this and other video lessons, additional resources and classroom activities.