alt Hacker News> You're going to have to update production at some point, and delaying it to once every 2 years is just deferred maintenance. And you know what they say about that...
Doing terrible work every 2 years is better than doing it every day?
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> Doing terrible work every 2 years is better than doing it every day?
And by skipping some releases, you will have less of that work. When something is changed in one release, then changed again on the next one, by waiting you only have to do the change once, instead of twice. And sometimes you don't even have to do anything, when something is introduced in one release and reverted in the next one.
Personally I'd rather have a manageable stream of little bad things consistently over time rather than suddenly having a mountain of bad things one day.
I've brought this up with leap second adjustments; a process you do once every two years is one you'll never get good at. If you want them to go smoothly, do them monthly.
LetsEncrypt has been a great example of this in certificate management.