diff --git a/dsp/utils/settings.py b/dsp/utils/settings.py
index e973f4705..00f01eeaf 100644
--- a/dsp/utils/settings.py
+++ b/dsp/utils/settings.py
@@ -1,9 +1,8 @@
-import copy
 import threading
-
 from contextlib import contextmanager
+from copy import deepcopy
+
 from dsp.utils.utils import dotdict
-from functools import lru_cache
 
 DEFAULT_CONFIG = dotdict(
     lm=None,
@@ -28,12 +27,6 @@
     async_max_workers=8,
 )
 
-@lru_cache(maxsize=None)
-def warn_once(msg: str):
-    import logging
-    logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
-    logger.warning(msg)
-
 
 class Settings:
     """DSP configuration settings."""
@@ -56,21 +49,18 @@ def __new__(cls):
             #  TODO: remove first-class support for re-ranker and potentially combine with RM to form a pipeline of sorts
             #  eg: RetrieveThenRerankPipeline(RetrievalModel, Reranker)
             #  downstream operations like dsp.retrieve would use configs from the defined pipeline.
-            config = copy.deepcopy(DEFAULT_CONFIG)
-            cls._instance.__append(config)
+
+            # make a deepcopy of the default config to avoid modifying the default config
+            cls._instance.__append(deepcopy(DEFAULT_CONFIG))
 
         return cls._instance
 
     @property
     def config(self):
         thread_id = threading.get_ident()
-        # if thread_id not in self.stack_by_thread:
-        #     self.stack_by_thread[thread_id] = [self.main_stack[-1].copy()]
-        try:
-            return self.stack_by_thread[thread_id][-1]
-        except Exception:
-            warn_once("Warning: You seem to be creating DSPy threads in an unsupported way.")
-            return self.main_stack[-1]
+        if thread_id not in self.stack_by_thread:
+            self.stack_by_thread[thread_id] = [self.main_stack[-1].copy()]
+        return self.stack_by_thread[thread_id][-1]
 
     def __getattr__(self, name):
         if hasattr(self.config, name):
@@ -83,16 +73,14 @@ def __getattr__(self, name):
 
     def __append(self, config):
         thread_id = threading.get_ident()
-        # if thread_id not in self.stack_by_thread:
-        #     self.stack_by_thread[thread_id] = [self.main_stack[-1].copy()]
-
-        assert thread_id in self.stack_by_thread, "Error: You seem to be creating DSPy threads in an unsupported way."
+        if thread_id not in self.stack_by_thread:
+            self.stack_by_thread[thread_id] = [self.main_stack[-1].copy()]
         self.stack_by_thread[thread_id].append(config)
 
     def __pop(self):
         thread_id = threading.get_ident()
-        # if thread_id in self.stack_by_thread:
-        self.stack_by_thread[thread_id].pop()
+        if thread_id in self.stack_by_thread:
+            self.stack_by_thread[thread_id].pop()
 
     def configure(self, inherit_config: bool = True, **kwargs):
         """Set configuration settings.
@@ -120,4 +108,4 @@ def __repr__(self) -> str:
         return repr(self.config)
 
 
-settings = Settings()
+settings = Settings()
\ No newline at end of file