Like the Mitch Hedburg joke, “when escalators break they become stairs—sorry for the convenience” reminds us about the importance of designing systems that fail gracefully. Escalators can still be used even when their function no longer works unlike elevators where you get stuck until it’s fixed.
What are some other examples of systems that still work?
See also:
- If an up escalator were a right-half-plane zero it would exponentially climb until taking you down