[Haskell-cafe] What happens if you get hit by a bus?

[Bardur Arantsson]

Andrew Coppin wrote:

> On 16/12/2011 07:05 PM, Bardur Arantsson wrote:
>> Michael Litchard wrote:
>>
>> [--snip--]
>>
>> If getting hit by a bus is a significant factor in the overall outcome of
>> the project then I think those are pretty good odds, aren't they?
>>
>> (I do realize that traffic accidents are a lot more frequent than we like
>> to think, but still...)
> 
> The /actual/ probability of being hit by a bus is irrelevant. The only
> thing of concequence is the /percieved/ probability. This latter
> quantity is not related to the former in any meaningful way. In fact,
> due to an effect known as availability bias, the probability of any
> potential threat varies dependi
> ng on how long you spend thinking about it.

[snip blah blah blah]

- Not to be rude, but... (*)

That was the point of my post.

If you're actually confronted with this perception that traffic accidents 
are relevant to project success, you're already in deep manure because 
there's so much more than code in a project. That's what you need to 
explain.

Code is the "means" of getting us to an "end". It seems these people are 
worring about the "means" when the big problem is actually conveying the 
"ends".

(Again, just my take on the situation, I'm not claiming canonicity or 
anything.)

-- 
Bárður Árantsson

(*) I realize that this is rude. I can only apologize.