What is Coding Confessions?
Simply put:
"Where somebody admits to mistakes or bad practice in code they've developed."
What's the problem?
Everybody who develops software has at some point written some software badly, quickly, cut corners or simply made a mistake that made it function incorrectly. Due to imposter syndrome many people feel like this makes them less worthy developers.
Often the root cause is time pressure to make something that "just works" (or at least appeared to). These little short cuts often end up becoming core pieces of software upon which research conclusions and publications are based. People don't like to admit to making mistakes, cutting corners or not following best practice, sometimes hiding these problems away.
Why do this?
We want to:
- Change the culture of research so that mistakes can be disclosed without fear.
- Document mistakes and allow the entire community to benefit from the lessons learned. These will be published on our blog.
How to submit a confession
Please only submit a confession about something you did yourself, don't submit confessions about the work of others.
Send us one paragraph about each of the following:
- The background to the problem, what were you trying to do?
- The mistake you made.
- What steps can be taken to avoid this mistake in the future.
You can do this publicly (with atribution) or privately (anonymously). We will then publish them on our blog.
See this example blog post.
See the submit a confession page for more information.
