Knee Jerk Fix

Noun · Slang & Abbreviations

Definitions

  1. A reactive fix applied quickly in response to pain, without enough reflection on whether it solves the right problem. In engineering slang, knee-jerk fixes often create second-order problems that arrive after the first relief.

    In plain English: A rushed reactive fix made without enough thought.

    Example: "Disabling the cache entirely was a knee jerk fix that eased one failure mode while quietly creating three new scaling problems downstream."

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