Developer’s risky Python shortcut resurfaces years later on LinkedIn

In a reader-submitted column, a former developer nicknamed Walter recounted a makeshift solution he deployed during a chaotic migration from Python 2 to Python 3. Facing a stubborn 20 percent of systems that refused to run the newer interpreter, he created a symbolic link (ln -s /usr/bin/python2 /usr/bin/python3) that effectively pointed the new binary back to the old one. The change went unnoticed, causing no alarms or paging events, and the upgrade proceeded.

Years later, while browsing LinkedIn, Walter spotted a post from a remaining employee of the same company confirming the final Linux upgrade and noting that the symbolic link had survived, now handled by Ansible. He used the story to highlight how short-term hacks can linger and reappear, especially when morale is low and proper testing is skipped.