Trust No One

Several monks of the Laughing Monkey Clan found their brother in a state of great anguish, typing frantically at his workstation.

“What vexes you so?” they asked.

Said the monk: “When new business rules are delivered next year, my code will need to be updated. Today the abbot told me who will be assigned this task, and my heart sank. He is an impatient fool who scorns documentation and breezes by comments, electing instead to guess the purpose of everything by name alone. Thus I must idiot-proof every class and method.”

The monk pointed to his screen. “Here he will be tempted to modify this object’s properties, so I must make it immutable to prevent disaster. Here he will surely mistake the purpose of this parameter, so now I must check for an illegal argument wherever it is used.” The monk collapsed upon his keyboard. “Ten thousand curses upon that imbecile, Taw-Jieh!” he wailed. “That he of all people should be chosen to maintain my code!”

The other monks looked at each other uncomfortably.

“But you are Taw-Jieh,” said one.