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   Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 24-Dec-2024 22:50:21 JST Rich Felker

   🤔 Is there a term comparable to "cargo-culted" without the baggage of the racist myth of cargo cults? Meaning roughly "pattern copied because you see others who seem to be successful doing it, but with no good reason behind it".

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     stephen-fox (stephen0x2dfox@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 24-Dec-2024 23:18:19 JST stephen-fox

     in reply to

     @dalias Best practices? In my experience it is code for "do what I said because I say so / other people are doing it, so we should do it / it sounds authoritative, so it must be correct".

     Has all the fun hallmarks of appealing to an imaginary authority while preemptively chilling any attempts at nuance or building a better understanding of the problem at hand.

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     Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 24-Dec-2024 23:24:35 JST Rich Felker

     in reply to

     Where it always comes up: we run into code that's either not compiling with #musl or compiling but then failing to do the right thing at runtime, because it's doing some convoluted nonportable dance in place of a direct and simple thing that would have worked on any system.

     And the bad thing it's doing is a pattern that's somehow become popular, probably from a few major pieces of sw doing it.

     And I want to say it's "cargo culted", but that term perpetuates a racist myth..

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     Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 24-Dec-2024 23:25:34 JST Rich Felker

     in reply to

     I'm kinda doubtful this thread will come up with a perfect phrasing that carries the same disdain for the behavior, but at least maybe it'll get folks thinking and eventually something will stick.

     Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell: likes this.
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     Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 24-Dec-2024 23:36:00 JST Rich Felker

     in reply to

     • chris martens

     @chrisamaphone It doesn't convey the important point that they're copying something without any understanding of what it means, and without recognizing that it's wrong, either in all contexts, or in their context that isn't the same as what they copied it from.

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     chris martens (chrisamaphone@hci.social)'s status on Tuesday, 24-Dec-2024 23:36:01 JST chris martens

     in reply to

     @dalias copycatting? not as disdainful but short and widely understood, not sure if it carries the meaning you want

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     Alexandre Oliva (lxo@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Wednesday, 25-Dec-2024 03:17:13 JST Alexandre Oliva

     in reply to
     tradition?
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     Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell: (lanodan@queer.hacktivis.me)'s status on Wednesday, 25-Dec-2024 03:36:02 JST Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell:

     in reply to
     @dalias copypasta? Although I guess "reasonless copying" could also works if you want to be precise.
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     Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Wednesday, 25-Dec-2024 12:08:08 JST Rich Felker

     in reply to

     Maybe I should dig up the original "Cargo Cult Programming" article and see if it has any leads...

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     IPmonger (ipmonger@hachyderm.io)'s status on Wednesday, 25-Dec-2024 12:59:05 JST IPmonger

     in reply to

     @dalias I *think* you’re looking for this: https://archive.org/details/professionalsoft00mcco_0/page/23/mode/1up

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     Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Wednesday, 25-Dec-2024 14:47:18 JST Rich Felker

     in reply to

     • IPmonger

     @IPmonger LMAO I was just thinking the cargo cult myth came across like Feynman bullshit, and sure enough, he's the original source for it!

     Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell: likes this.
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     翠星石 (suiseiseki@freesoftwareextremist.com)'s status on Thursday, 26-Dec-2024 12:15:18 JST 翠星石

     in reply to

     • Alexandre Oliva
     @lxo @dalias GNUadtion.