Cargo Cult Science (1974)

Re:Cargo Cult Science (1974) by sjclemmy on Saturday December 31, 2016 @06:31AM (#13290628)

I've always wondered about 'Cargo Cult' with reference to software development. When you write software you are expecting a certain result. Surely if you don't get the result, you try something else.

EDIT: ah right. So you 'may' get the result, but it's not due to the thing you have ascribed it to.

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Re:Cargo Cult Science (1974) by blowski on Saturday December 31, 2016 @07:13AM (#13290721)

It's about confusing correlation with causation.

Look at Cargo Cult Agile for example. Company X is very successful. Company X uses points to estimate tasks. Therefore, if we use points to estimate tasks, we will be successful.

Remember when everybody went crazy for Erlang because WhatsApp was written in Erlang?

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Re:Cargo Cult Science (1974) by tim333 on Saturday December 31, 2016 @06:48AM (#13290667)

Wikipedia actually has an article on "Cargo cult programming". They have it as "the ritual inclusion of code or program structures that serve no real purpose".

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Re:Cargo Cult Science (1974) by grzm on Saturday December 31, 2016 @06:54AM (#13290677)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult_programming

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Re:Cargo Cult Science (1974) by sorokod on Saturday December 31, 2016 @07:45AM (#13290804)

> Surely if you don't get the result, you try something else.

Results have many "dimensions" and it is often not clear what THE result is. You will usually get A result though.

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Re:Cargo Cult Science (1974) by bboreham on Saturday December 31, 2016 @09:25AM (#13291116)

"No, the code must be correct: I tested it"

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