Pretty good article. The title sounds clickbaity, but I don't think it really is. "Don't write bugs" should be understood in the sense of "don't bump into things when you walk," meaning simply that writing bugs in your code is something to be avoided in the first place, not something you accept now and try to fix later. It's kind of subtle but an important point. It's not that coding a bug means you're necessarily a Bad Programmer or not a Real Programmer, but it is something to be learned from so you can avoid doing it next time.
Problem is, not every problem is well defined and not every design is correct or sufficient. And if users touch the results, all bets are off as it’s very very very hard anticipating all of the things they’ll do with your work.
Pretty good article. The title sounds clickbaity, but I don't think it really is. "Don't write bugs" should be understood in the sense of "don't bump into things when you walk," meaning simply that writing bugs in your code is something to be avoided in the first place, not something you accept now and try to fix later. It's kind of subtle but an important point. It's not that coding a bug means you're necessarily a Bad Programmer or not a Real Programmer, but it is something to be learned from so you can avoid doing it next time.
(2021) Discussion at the time (131 points, 108 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28769053
Problem is, not every problem is well defined and not every design is correct or sufficient. And if users touch the results, all bets are off as it’s very very very hard anticipating all of the things they’ll do with your work.