--- title: Revive Raskin's 3 laws of software with humane work that... description: An essay revisits Jef Raskin's three laws of humane interface design, prompted by a blog post from Marcin Wichary about CHERI researcher David Chisnall losing... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/revive-raskin-s-3-laws-of-software-with-humane-work-that-considers-a-dev-s-duty-of-care-ouq1at6d6 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Revive Raskin's 3 laws of software with humane work that considers a dev's duty of care | daily.dev og:description: An essay revisits Jef Raskin's three laws of humane interface design, prompted by a blog post from Marcin Wichary about CHERI researcher David Chisnall losing... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/revive-raskin-s-3-laws-of-software-with-humane-work-that-considers-a-dev-s-duty-of-care-ouq1at6d6 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/OUq1aT6D6.png og:image:alt: Revive Raskin's 3 laws of software with humane work that considers a dev's duty of care og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Revive Raskin's 3 laws of software with humane work that considers a dev's duty of care **[The Register](https://daily.dev/sources/theregister)** · 6 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary An essay revisits Jef Raskin's three laws of humane interface design, prompted by a blog post from Marcin Wichary about CHERI researcher David Chisnall losing over a decade of Vim undo history after trying NeoVim, which silently overwrote his persistent-undo file. The piece connects Raskin's laws (don't harm a user's work, don't waste their time, be considerate of human frailties) to Asimov's three laws of robotics, criticizes modal editors like Vi/Vim/NeoVim for demanding extra mental effort, and notes backlash from NeoVim/Unix fans against the criticism, including the removal of a DHH pull-quote from the NeoVim website. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Why did a NeoVim user lose years of Vim undo history after switching editors? NeoVim overwrote a persistent-undo file that Vim had maintained safely for about 20 years, destroying more than a decade of recorded changes. The user, CHERI researcher David Chisnall, had customized where his Vim undo directory was stored, and the NeoVim fork wrote over it despite a warning he expected to be safe, violating what he called Raskin's first law of not harming a user's data. _Anyone weighing a NeoVim migration can read real-world editor-switch pitfalls like this one on daily.dev before trusting a new default._ ### What are Jef Raskin's three laws of humane interface design? Raskin's three laws state that a computer shall not harm your work or, through inaction, allow your work to come to harm; a computer shall not waste your time or require more work than strictly necessary; and an interface is humane if it is responsive to human needs and considerate of human frailties. Raskin defined them in his 2000 book The Humane Interface, drawing a parallel to Asimov's earlier three laws of robotics. _Developers shaping tool UX can revisit foundational design principles like these through daily.dev's software design coverage._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [“They had no concept of a duty of care to their users.”](https://daily.dev/posts/they-had-no-concept-of-a-duty-of-care-to-their-users--0q4s629je) · Lobsters · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Asimov's three laws are merely a suggestion](https://daily.dev/posts/asimov-s-three-laws-are-merely-a-suggestion-udi2v6obe) · Ibrahim Diallo · 9 upvotes · 1 comments - [The thing that brought me joy](https://daily.dev/posts/the-thing-that-brought-me-joy-vfzyynk3z) · Hacker News · 2 upvotes · 1 comments --- Tags: [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source), [#devtools](https://daily.dev/tags/devtools), [#vim](https://daily.dev/tags/vim) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/revive-raskin-s-3-laws-of-software-with-humane-work-that-considers-a-dev-s-duty-of-care-ouq1at6d6) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Revive Raskin's 3 laws of software with humane work that considers a dev's duty of care","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/revive-raskin-s-3-laws-of-software-with-humane-work-that-considers-a-dev-s-duty-of-care-ouq1at6d6","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/revive-raskin-s-3-laws-of-software-with-humane-work-that-considers-a-dev-s-duty-of-care-ouq1at6d6"},"datePublished":"2026-10-04T10:34:40.431Z","dateModified":"2026-10-04T10:35:03.091Z","description":"An essay revisits Jef Raskin's three laws of humane interface design, prompted by a blog post from Marcin Wichary about CHERI researcher David Chisnall losing...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/93fb52bd1945097df712099f2b351607?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/93fb52bd1945097df712099f2b351607?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"The Register","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Register","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/66aa2113fdad463992ffcbf0e8963fda","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/theregister"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/revive-raskin-s-3-laws-of-software-with-humane-work-that-considers-a-dev-s-duty-of-care-ouq1at6d6","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"open-source,devtools,vim","timeRequired":"PT6M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Register","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/theregister"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Revive Raskin's 3 laws of software with humane work that considers a dev's duty of care"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/revive-raskin-s-3-laws-of-software-with-humane-work-that-considers-a-dev-s-duty-of-care-ouq1at6d6#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Why did a NeoVim user lose years of Vim undo history after switching editors?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"NeoVim overwrote a persistent-undo file that Vim had maintained safely for about 20 years, destroying more than a decade of recorded changes. The user, CHERI researcher David Chisnall, had customized where his Vim undo directory was stored, and the NeoVim fork wrote over it despite a warning he expected to be safe, violating what he called Raskin's first law of not harming a user's data. Anyone weighing a NeoVim migration can read real-world editor-switch pitfalls like this one on daily.dev before trusting a new default."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"What are Jef Raskin's three laws of humane interface design?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Raskin's three laws state that a computer shall not harm your work or, through inaction, allow your work to come to harm; a computer shall not waste your time or require more work than strictly necessary; and an interface is humane if it is responsive to human needs and considerate of human frailties. Raskin defined them in his 2000 book The Humane Interface, drawing a parallel to Asimov's earlier three laws of robotics. Developers shaping tool UX can revisit foundational design principles like these through daily.dev's software design coverage."}}]} ```