Postol's Law
Updated 2026-08-16
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
Postel's Law, the robustness principle: be strict about what you send out, and liberal about what you accept. As a compatibility design guideline, it says that in complex system interaction you keep your own output strictly conforming while tolerating the irregular input of others, which raises the robustness of the whole system substantially.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Send strictly: conform completely to the specification on every message you emit outward. - Accept liberally: tolerate reasonable deviation in whatever arrives, and quietly normalize it. - Set a safety bound: keep your tolerance from becoming an entry point for attack.
Anchor fast decisions
Strict sending keeps interaction predictable for whatever receives it, and liberal acceptance lowers the chance that another party's non-standard behavior breaks the exchange. The combination raises the robustness of the whole system, which matters most in heterogeneous, evolving distributed environments.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
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Source support: Explicit
- en.wikipedia.orghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robustness_principleverified
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