This is interesting to me, because I’m fascinated by how we (I’d wager it’s true for most folks, even if unconsciously) attempt to manage how others think and how they perceive us, by our word choices. I thought the headline saying “lies” was click-baity—because most of us (I think) have a strong reaction to the idea of lies—for the most part, we do not want to be lied to!
However, I wondered if Cory may have meant it in the sense that programmers are lying to themselves—i.e., they know it’s a fallacy, but they conveniently ignore it (in other words, they lie to themselves about it) in order not to deal with the complications necessitated by working with the truth.
Then, I looked up definitions of “lie” and found that Google says, among other definitions:
used with reference to a situation involving deception or founded on a mistaken impression.
“all their married life she had been living a lie”
and Google’s definition of “fallacy” includes:
a mistaken belief, especially one based on unsound argument.
From those, I could easily equate “fallacy” with “founded on a mistaken impression”, and that made me feel more tolerant of Cory’s use of the word “lie”.
I note that the original source (davedelong) doesn’t use the words “lie” or “lies”, but it does use the words “false” and “true”, which many of us (I think) associate with the concept of lying. So I guess I can see how Cory got there.
Still, I think it’s click-baity, and I like @HMSGoose’s suggestion for making it more affirmative!
