goclimbarock007 t1_iy41vuk wrote on November 28, 2022 at 4:25 PM

Reply to comment by ThatGenericName2 in eli5 How is computer memory deleted? by unlikemike123

I read an anecdote about a programmer that wrote some sort of script that worked too fast and didn't look like it actually did anything. He added sleep counters and a progress bar to make it seem like it was doing something. A year later he "optimized" the program by cutting the sleep timers in half.

ClownfishSoup t1_iy4mkcj wrote on November 28, 2022 at 6:42 PM

This weird thing happens with cake and cookie mixes as well. You can easily make a mix that just requires adding water and then baking, but people didn't believe they would be any good, so manufacturers changed the ingredients so that the end user has to add oil, milk and eggs to the mix. ie; people were suspicious that the mix was too easy, so they dumbed it down.