Note: this content is reposted from my old Google Plus blog, which disappeared when Google took Plus down. It was originally published on 2016-05-18. My views and the way I express them may have evolved in the meantime. If you like this gist, though, take a look at Leprechauns of Software Engineering. (I have edited minor parts of this post for accuracy after having a few mistakes pointed out in the comments.)
Degrees of intellectual dishonesty
In the previous post, I said something along the lines of wanting to crawl into a hole when I encounter bullshit masquerading as empirical support for a claim, such as "defects cost more to fix the later you fix them".
It's a fair question to wonder why I should feel shame for my profession. It's a fair question who I feel ashamed for. So let's drill a little deeper, and dig into cases.
Before we do that, a disclaimer: I am not in the habit of judging people. In what follows, I only mean to condemn behaviours. Also, I gath
