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People defend normal rules by saying they're "not arbitrary." But if they were arbitrariness minimizers the rules would certainly be different. Why should I tolerate an arbitrary level of arbitrariness when I can have minimal instead?
Your policy's non-maximal arbitrariness is not an excuse for its remaining arbitrariness.
I do not suggest the absence of a policy if such an absence would be more arbitrary than the existing policy. All I want is a minimally arbitrary policy; that often implies replacing existing rules rather than simply doing away with them. Sometimes it does mean doing away with them.
A policy that could be better — could be more good — is arbitrarily bad. In fact the phrase "arbitrarily bad" is redundant; you can just say "arbitrary."
-1ChristianKl
That's not how the English language works.
The dictionary defines arbitrary as:
[...]
It's not about whether the choice is good or bad but that it's not made because of reasons that speak in favor.
There is no real reason to choose either the left or right side of the road for driving but it's very useful to choose either of them.
The fact that the number 404 for a "page not found" and 403 for "client is forbidden from accessing a valid URL" is arbitrary. There's no reason or system why you wouldn't switch the two numbers.
The web profits from everyone accepting the same arbitrary numbers for the same type of error.
If one person says I don't really need that many error codes, I don't want to follow arbitrary choices and send 44 instead of 404, this creates a mess for everyone who expects the standard to be followed.
based on random choice or personal whim, rather than any reason or system
The more considerate and reasoned your choice, the less random it is. If the truth is that your way of being considerate and systematic isn't as good as it could have been, that truth is systematic and not magical. The reason for the non-maximal goodness of your policy is a reason you did not consider. The less considerate, the more arbitrary.
There is no real reason to choose either the left or right side of the road for driving but it's very useful... (read more)