The Problem with Certainty in Software Development and Human Behavior
By
samtheprogram
9mo ago· 7 min readenOpinion
100/100
Golden Brown
Bagelometer↗
A five-star bake. Worth schmearing, sharing, saving.
Score100TypeopinionSentimentneutral
Summary
The article critiques the tech industry's tendency to favor certainty and confidence over nuanced thinking, arguing that software development often ignores the inherent uncertainty in real-world data like GPS coordinates, sensor readings, and user behavior. It suggests that senior developers are forced to constantly say "it depends" while acknowledging that people are drawn to confidence even when misplaced.
Key quotes
· 5 pulledYou know what's wrong with people? They're too sure of themselves.
Better to be wrong and own it than be right with caveats.
Hard to build a personal brand out of nuance these days.
People are attracted to confidence — however misplaced.
Working in software, the most annoying part of reaching Senior level is having to say "it depends" all the time.
GPS coordinates aren’t exact. Sensor readings have noise. User behavior is probabilistic. Yet we write code that pretends uncertainty doesn’t exist, forcing messy real-world data through clean Boolean logic.
