I've always had enough interest in technology to be willing to yank out parts of a system which I did not understand - to see what breaks, and through that, gain understanding.

That said, I'm pretty sure the original author knew and understood exactly what they were doing - writing a dirty hack.

Did you often yank out parts of other people's systems which you did not understand?

Only when I didn't understand the full impact of the hack I used.

> to yank out parts of a system which I did not understand - to see what breaks, and through that, gain understanding.

On your development machine or on machines of other people all around the world? You can also gain understanding from the later, too.