Epistemic Status: 
Sprouting - This is a zettelkasten-style card about a concept I’m interested in remembering.
I’ve been a fan of this pattern for a long time, and I keep forgetting the source.
The Strangler Fig pattern is a gradual approach to legacy modernization. It involves isolating components of the legacy system and replacing them one at a time to:
gradually create a new system around the edges of the old, letting it grow slowly over several years until the old system is strangled.
The metaphor comes from the strangler fig plants from the genus Ficus.