The second-system effect or second-system syndrome is the tendency of small, elegant, and successful systems to be succeeded by over-engineered, bloated systems, due to inflated expectations and overconfidence.^[1]

The phrase was first used by Fred Brooks in his book The Mythical Man-Month, first published in 1975. It described the jump from a set of simple operating systems on the IBM 700/7000 series to OS/360 on the 360 series, which happened in 1964.^[2]

See also

• Anti-pattern
• Feature creep
• Inner-platform effect
• Osborne effect
• Sophomore slump
• Unix philosophy
• Examples in information technology: IPv6 deployment, Taligent, Workplace OS, Copland, Rhapsody

References

External links

• Spolsky, Joel (April 6, 2000). "Things You Should Never Do, Part I". Joel on Software. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
• Turoff, Adam (August 21, 2007). "Notes on Haskell". Retrieved October 15, 2021.
• Gunton, Neil (July 20, 2008). "Rewrites Considered Harmful?". Retrieved October 15, 2021.
• Chad Fowler. "The Big Rewrite". Archived from the original on December 8, 2016.

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