# Fallbacks are worse than we think they are

> Source: <https://www.natemeyvis.com/fallbacks-are-worse-than-we-think-they-are/>
> Published: 2026-07-12 17:22:00+00:00

[Here](https://www.natemeyvis.com/generative-ai-tools-really-love-fallbacks/) is a post I made a while ago about fallbacks. I stand by it, but models are a lot better now at not inserting bad fallbacks. I don't know whether that's a product of my guidance, the models' improvement, or both.

Now I'd like to make explicit why I like fallbacks a lot less than most of my peers.

In short: extremely reliable functioning (of the main, non-fallback path) tends to be a bit more achievable than we think, and this is getting more and more true over time. And when the main path fails, crashing and/or alarming is somewhat underrated relative to falling back.

None of this means that you should *never* use fallbacks, just that they're overrated. Inserting fallback paths feels to me like one of those things (like writing [too many integration tests](https://www.natemeyvis.com/notes-on-integration-testing/)) that, for sociological and psychological reasons, has become associated with wise professionalism and is overrated.