Custom Search

optimism

[prev][up][next]
optimism: n. What a programmer is full of after fixing the last bug and before discovering the _next_ last bug. Fred Brooks's book "The Mythical Man-Month" (See "Brooks's Law") contains the following paragraph that describes this extremely well: 

     All programmers are optimists.  Perhaps this modern sorcery
     especially attracts those who believe in happy endings and fairy
     godmothers.  Perhaps the hundreds of nitty frustrations drive away
     all but those who habitually focus on the end goal.  Perhaps it is
     merely that computers are young, programmers are younger, and the
     young are always optimists.  But however the selection process
     works, the result is indisputable: "This time it will surely run,"
     or "I just found the last bug.".

See also Lubarsky's Law of Cybernetic Entomology.

[prev][up][next] 25 hits in May 2012
mes@science.uva.nl