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Programmers are Optimists
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 contains the following paragraph that describes the same thing 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.”.
Well, what more can I say!
Hm… opon further reflection, there's one thing I might add: these days, many programmers are not younger, they're older:-)
$updated from: Programmers are Optimists.htxt Thu 27 Apr 2017 10:06:49 thomasl (By Thomas Lauer)$