If It Works – Don't Touch It! Why It's Not a Joke, but a Strategy?
🧘 If It Works – Don’t Touch It! Why It’s Not a Joke, but a Strategy
It’s not a bug — it’s a feature.
It’s not legacy — it’s a time-tested solution.
It’s not a crutch — it’s a production stabilizer.
Real-Life Examples You Shouldn’t Touch
💻 Development
- 💾 Legacy code no one understands anymore, but it runs smoothly. No one dares touch it.
- 🧱 A hacky fix from 3 years ago that saved a release — and still powers production.
- 🚀 A deployment script that magically works. Nobody knows why — but it works.
- 💥 DB automigrations where even glancing at them can crash the cluster.
- 🧩 A monolith, “almost ready for microservices”… just not today.
- ⚙️ nginx config that fixes everything — through unexplained voodoo.
- 🛣 An API router untouched since 2018. No complaints — no changes.
- 🗃 A sharded DB setup that only the retired DevOps understood.
- ⏱ Cron jobs that run once a year. No one remembers what they do.
- 📦 Vendor libraries untouched since 2019 — but everything still flies.
📈 Product & Management
- 🧪 A forgotten A/B test that’s somehow still increasing conversions.
- 🧰 A “temporary” WordPress landing page that brings in 80% of leads.
- 📤 Manual CSV exports that were “about to be automated” in 2021.
- 📊 A Google Sheets dashboard that became the source of truth for the whole org.
- 📬 An Outlook newsletter they “meant to migrate to SendGrid” three years ago.
- 👀 Manual KYC checks because automation is “too risky”.
- 📈 An Excel macro written by an ex-employee, running the company’s finances.
- 🧭 A Notion planner that somehow works better than an expensive SaaS PM tool.
- 🧮 Old HTML counters still collecting data without missing a beat.
🤯 Why “Don’t Touch It” Makes Sense
- Not all code needs urgent refactoring.
- If the system is stable — why break it?
- Sometimes there’s no time or team to “do it properly”.
- Replacing “what works” often brings more bugs, delays, and pain.
🧨 When “Trying to Improve” Goes Wrong
I’ve seen this dozens of times.
🖼️ In Frontend
- Redesigned a page with trendy animations — and conversion dropped 30%.
- Migrated from jQuery to “modern stack” — but broke half the logic.
- Removed “unnecessary” form fields — users got confused and didn’t convert.
- Replaced a custom button with a UI library component — and it broke in Safari.
🎯 In Marketing & Ads
- “Optimized” ad campaigns — accidentally paused the top-performing ad.
- Rewrote the landing page following UX guru advice — lost 40% of signups.
- Enabled “smart goals” in Google Ads — and cost per conversion doubled.
- Tried to automate email templates — sent blank emails to half the list.
Moral? Sometimes “don’t touch it” is not fear — it’s wisdom.
If you must change something, do it with tests, metrics, and common sense.
🚗 Tried and Tested: Niva, UAZ, and Russian Engineering
Let’s take a look at Russian cars: Niva, UAZ “Bukhanka”.
They’ve been in production since the 70s — and are still in demand worldwide. Because:
- They drive (even through hell).
- They don’t break (too often).
- If they do break — a hammer fixes it.
- They outperform many fancy SUVs off-road.
- Like the AK-47 — simple, rugged, eternal.
- Cheap, reliable, and still loved.
Sounds funny? But people still buy them. Because they just work.
Same with your codebase — sometimes it’s better to keep that “production Bukhanka” running
than swap it for a shiny scooter that breaks in the rain 😄
📌 Bottom Line
There’s no such thing as a perfect solution.
And working solutions don’t always need to be “improved”.
Respect the old hacks. Replace them when you’re ready — but don’t break them when they still work.
🧘 “If it works — don’t touch it” isn’t laziness. It’s survival strategy.
Honor your prod — and it will honor you.