So this story….
https://lobste.rs/s/ryjpwg/biggest_weirdest_commits_linux_kernel
…reminded me of this blog post.
And this paper…
https://arxiv.org/pdf/0706.1062.pdf
Although I will also toss in the caveat that most distributions run into physical limitations at the extreme ends.
Entertainingly written, right on the money, and the advice is broadly applicable and clear on what you should do and why you should do it. Thanks for posting this!
Another essay I think of as being in this genre, of mathematical shapes that are often spuriously eyeballed, often with an implication of deep meaning attached: “Fibonacci Flim-Flam”.