the.com/brittleness
The quality of holding firm right up until it spectacularly doesn't.
means The tendency of a material or system to fail suddenly and completely instead of bending, stretching, or warning you first.
from From Old English breotan, to break, sharing roots with brittle — words built to describe things that snap rather than yield.
Cold mattersSteel turns brittle in extreme cold, sinking ships.
Glass logicGlass is brittle because cracks travel unopposed.
Systems tooSoftware can be brittle, breaking from one small change.