🌳 A bonsai's training wire has an expiration date nobody tells you about.

Wrap a branch too early, it springs right back the second you cut the wire loose. Leave it wrapped too long, past the point the bark finishes healing around it, and the wire scars in permanently, you can't ever fully remove the mark, only grow around it.

Every "quick fix, we'll clean it up later" CSS override I've shipped has the exact same window. Pull it out early enough and the component just goes back to using the system properly. Leave it past a certain point, and devs start building new work on top of the override like it's the real rule, and now it's load-bearing.

I started setting an actual removal date on every override now, not a vague "later."

What's the oldest "temporary" override still wrapped around something in your codebase?