Cargo-cult programming

📄 OneThingWell.dev wiki page | 🕑 Last updated: Jan 20, 2022

The original term "cargo cult" refers to aboriginal religious groups in the South Pacific after World War II. They were obsessed with building elaborate mock-ups of airplanes and military landing strips in the hope of summoning the god-like beings who arrived in airplanes that had brought marvelous cargo during the war.

Just like them, cargo-cult programmers are obsessed with using technologies or patterns they don't fully understand, in hopes that "Good things will come" (because someone else has reporedly used them successfully).

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