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Comment by burntsushi | Hacker News Reader

> With C you may, if you wish, develop a big sensibility to race conditions, and stay alert. In general it is possible that C programmers have their "bugs antenna" a bit more developed than other folks.

I suppose it's possible. I wonder if I'll become a better driver if I take off my seatbelt. Or even better, if I take my son out of my car seat and just let him roam free in the back seat. I'm sure my wife will buy this.

In all seriousness, your comment reminds me of this funny video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glmcMeTVIIQ

It's nowhere near a perfect analogy, but there are some striking similarities.

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Human behaviour can be a confounding thing. There was some debate a while ago [1] about whether bike helmet use may actually lead more head injuries due to factors like drivers passing closer to helmeted riders vs. unhelmeted ones or riders riding more recklessly, among a tonne of other factors. I still prefer to wear a helmet, but its an interesting example of how difficult it can be to engineer human behaviour.

Another good example of this is how civil engineers adding safety factors into design of roads - lane widths, straighter curves, and so on - leading drivers to speed more and decreasing road safety overall.

1. https://bigthink.com/articles/the-bike-helmet-paradox/

FWIW, FAFO is a very good way to learn. Assuming we can respawn indefinitely and preserve knowledge between respawns, driving fast and taking off your seatbelt would definitely teach you more than just reading a book.

But in this specific case, if the respawn feature is not available or dying isn't a desirable event, FAFO might not be the best way to learn how to drive.

I also think we have the data in for memory safety in C. Even the best people, with the best processes in the world seem to keep writing memory safety bugs. The “just be more vigilant” plan doesn’t seem to work.

> FWIW, FAFO is a very good way to learn. Assuming we can respawn indefinitely and preserve knowledge between respawns, driving fast and taking off your seatbelt would definitely teach you more than just reading a book.

Yes, just sucks for the person who you hit with your car, or the person whose laptop gets owned because of your code.

"FAFO" is not a great method of learning when the cost is externalized.

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