Acquire Quote by Harlan Mills
“The only way for errors to occur in a program is by being put there by the author. No other mechanisms are known. Programs can't acquire bugs by sitting around with other buggy programs.”
About This Quote
Source Article: The Mythical Man-Month, Frederick P. Brooks Jr., 1975
Errors are introduced intentionally by developers; software does not spontaneously develop bugs through interaction with other code.
In simple terms: Bugs are placed by programmers, not by programs themselves.
Key Takeaway
Write clean code and review thoroughly.
Themes
software development
quality assurance
programming
bugs
responsibility
Mood
cautious
analytical
Type
technical
educational
When to use this quote
- code review
- pair programming
- static analysis
- test-driven development
- continuous integration
Key Concepts
intentional design flaws
software reliability
human error
Questions to Reflect On
- How can we detect unintended bugs early?
- What practices reduce accidental errors?
A Different Perspective
Assumes all bugs are intentional, ignoring emergent issues like race conditions.
![“If the State does not acquire supremacy over [vast private] enterprises, it becomes their puppet, and they become the real State.” quote by Bertrand Russell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/bad/bertrand-russell-69_acquire_if-the-state-does-not-acquire-supremacy_1379.jpg)
