Had GPT summarize what happened.
The "left pad" incident refers to a controversy that arose in 2016 when a developer named Azer Koçulu removed his JavaScript package called "left-pad" from the NPM (Node Package Manager) registry. This caused a ripple effect, breaking numerous projects that relied on this package and highlighting the potential risks of relying on external dependencies. The incident sparked a debate about the stability and trustworthiness of the open-source ecosystem and led to discussions about best practices for managing dependencies in software development.