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A comment on Show HN: MassDNS – A high-performance DNS stub resolver in C. Parent comment

Re:Show HN: MassDNS – A high-performance DNS stub resolver in C by kibwen on Monday June 27, 2016 @12:01AM (#11984150) 

  > Nothing here backs the assertion that good programmers 
  > are more likely to create more bugs per line of code 
  > written.
This is moving the goalposts. Here's your original statement:

"It may be a bad idea for an average developer to try it"

And here's pcwalton's rebuttal:

"It is a bad idea for any developer to try it"

The relative frequency of bugs between average developers and advanced developers isn't the issue. Very good developers create bugs that lead to security flaws all the time. That the number of bugs they create is less than the number of bugs that would be created by less experienced developers does not matter in this context, because we have empirical evidence that both these numbers are very far from zero.

  > Good programmers know their limits, the limits of 
  > their tools, and have the experience to recognize 
  > problematic patterns
Sharing such experience is precisely what tptacek and pcwalton are doing here.
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Re:Show HN: MassDNS – A high-performance DNS stub resolver in C by jjnoakes on Monday June 27, 2016 @08:01AM (#11985588)
I didn't move the goalposts very far at all. If you quoted the rest of pcwalton's comment you would have had a more appropriate context in which to understand my reply.

Here we have a claim that encompasses 100% of a population, which is refuted by someone in that population who doesn't agree with the claim (and whose direct experience contradicts it).

And it isn't just my experience which contradicts it. Many of my colleagues would dismiss such an assertion as well.

Now if his claim was about "many" or even "most" programmers then sure, perhaps there is nothing to refute. But then his claim would have added almost nothing to what he replied to.

Saying all? That's either a dramatic device which I don't think adds to a healthy discussion, or a genuine belied that I think should be refuted since I'm in a position to provide counter evidence.

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