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“Patterns of Failure” is a semi-essay from TheDailyWTF that actually points out some useful information from developers.

We human beings are quite remarkable at recognizing patterns. Take clouds, for example. A cloud dog looks nothing like a real dog, yet no matter how hard we try, once we see the dog in the cloud, that’s all we can see.

While this ability has clear evolutionary advantages, it’s often a disservice in today’s modern world. Pattern recognition yields many false positives, leading towards Gamblers’ Fallacy, prejudice, and can even extend to really poorly-written software.

Now, recognizing patterns at the micro level (i.e., code) is almost always a Good Thing. Code often does repeat itself, and consolidating repetitive code into subroutines tends to help throughout development and especially when it comes to maintenance. The real problem – and the one behind the aforementioned systems – is recognizing patterns at the macro/application level.

I like TDWTF; it can be trite (“Look! Dumb code in real life!”) but sometimes has some funny or interesting moments.

This one is interesting.

Related posts:

1. Suspension of Disbelief well worth reading
2. GigaSpaces 7.1 Early Access – worth it, totally