"Woo Wars" - What is "Woo"?

[Ohio Joe]

129. Comparing medicine to coding makes zero sense... Not even close to the same

"his might be a "you say potaTOE and I say potaTA" situation, and maybe you have been gifted with users the likes of which I've never met who provide perfect specifications ---



Or maybe you are just in a feisty mood and want to argue semantics. As I said, when code doesn't do what I expect it to do, my analysis always starts with WHY. Sometimes it turns out to be programmer error (don't tell - it happens!), and sometimes we discover the user "forgot" to tell us about possible options (because they happen so rarely) and sometimes somebody who didn't know what they were doing put in crap code before fleeing for greener pastures."

Programs do not fail because you do not know how to ask the proper questions of the user when gathering requirements. Programs fail because you neither coded nor tested them correctly. There is no "you say potaTOE and I say potaTA" when coding... You either code it to do what the requirements specify or you did it wrong and passing the blame onto the user is just... Passing the blame.

Trying to compare this to medicine is silly. Nobody claims we know everything about medicine but some things can certainly be ruled out as woo... We do know they are at best useless. Because one person recovers from something while doing something known to be useless does not mean it should be treated as a viable alternative. For instance, nothing is going to change that makes homeopathy something to be taken seriously no matter how many people get fooled into thinning it should be. It simply does not cure or treat anything.

Are there issues with how research is done today? Absolutely. Does that mean we should seriously consider stupid? No and those that promote it deserve to be ridiculed.