Moral principles in IT: Slippery slope

Slippery slope, or more precisely, avoiding to step on a slippery slope, is a basic moral principle also known as Descartes' rule of change. The rule says if we cannot take an action repeatedly, we should not take it at all. Why? Because if we do not fail at the first attempt, we will be tempted to repeat the act. But with each iteration, our situation gets more difficult until we cannot handle it anymore.

The principle has a key role in designing information systems. Technology speeds up repetitive actions. So if repeating an action gets us in trouble, automation of this repetition only speeds up the process.

In my latest YouTube video, I speak about the slippery slope principle in an IT context.