Unintended consequences, that close cousin of mislaid plans, can claim some responsibility for a current conundrum: low-flow fixtures paired with existing oversized piping helped create the growing crisis of legionella bacteria.
It’s a reminder that our best intentions often blow up in our face. Take Braess’s paradox, for instance, the idea that if you add another motor lane to a congested route, with the intent of lessoning traffic, you end up increasing journey times. If you build it, they will come. It suggests that you could improve the malfunctioning system by removing certain aspects of it, not by adding to it.