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Turkey Developers And The Christmas Day Problem
Dumb luck doesn’t last forever in software development
Don’t be fooled because something hasn’t broken yet. It could be dumb luck
Developers avoiding disaster are down to luck, developers recovering quickly from disaster are down to preparation. Better to be prepared than lucky because luck has a probability of ending.
Turkey developers are developers who despite using poor procedures, and standards (no source control, backups, etc) can for a time, experience no problems and gain confidence in their approach based on the results.
Turkey developers are oblivious to the potential dangers like turkeys happily gobbling their way through life, not realising Christmas Day is coming.
The Turkey parable
In the book, Antifragile Nassim Taleb tells a story about a turkey. Watch here 24 mins.
For the whole year, the turkeys get treated well, fed well, and looked after by the farmer. All they can see is great days ahead. The turkeys get increasingly confident because in their whole life, all they have seen is being treated well. The record of these turkeys is they have a great life every single day.
