The quote in the article seems to come from nowhere. It’s not in the post they link, and Google doesn’t find it. I went looking because I was uncomfortable with the way Chesterton’s Fence was being used here: it’s not supposed to be “that fence is important!” It’s supposed to be “that fence may be important, and until you know whether it is or not, leave it up.” I’ve probably written a lot of code that looks like a fence across a road, and I would hate to think everyone I ever worked with is leaving it up regardless of whether it’s still useful.
In this case I happen to agree with the author’s premise: it seems clear that kids have a developmental need to interact with the world physically. But I’m not comfortable with a made-up blockquote that slightly twists the meaning of the original parable.
ETA: I’m not accusing the author of the Medium article of fabricating their quote; their source may have changed in the interim. I’m just saying someone made up this story, there’s no apparent source for it, and it’s not a good representation of the principle it purportedly explains.
The author is claiming he knows why the fence was built, but now we've torn it down, which is not the normal way of using the CF idiom... but... doesn't mean it's not a reasonable usage.
In this case I happen to agree with the author’s premise: it seems clear that kids have a developmental need to interact with the world physically. But I’m not comfortable with a made-up blockquote that slightly twists the meaning of the original parable.
ETA: I’m not accusing the author of the Medium article of fabricating their quote; their source may have changed in the interim. I’m just saying someone made up this story, there’s no apparent source for it, and it’s not a good representation of the principle it purportedly explains.