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When it rains, only the compressed snow is left
(feddit.uk)
Desire paths Desire paths can be paths created as a consequence of erosion caused by human or animal foot-fall or traffic. The paths usually represent the shortest or most easily navigated routes between origins and destinations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire_path
I'm partial to a desire path being "the path of least resistance". And in that sense, it's still a desire path because it still carves a path that gets more defined as more people use it, whether or not it's fully developed. The second person didn't have to choose the same path as the first, but they did. And so did the next. And so on.
I grant you, it's kinda like the philosophical question of: how many grains make a mountain.
Yeah, but also if the first path maker had picked a silly zigzag or somewhere no one else wanted to go, the crowd would have corrected it or ignored it.