Tech Glossary

This Tech Glossary is a place to collect quirky tech phrases and break them down into plain English.

Contribution guide

A

B

Bikeshedding

• Alternative forms: Bike-shedding
• Definition: Futile expenditure of time and energy in discussion of marginal technical issues.
• Example: "The team spent two hours arguing about the color scheme of the website footer while ignoring the major security vulnerabilities - a classic case of bikeshedding."
• Etymology: The term was coined as a metaphor to illuminate Parkinson's Law of Triviality
• Reference

C

Can of Worms

• See Worm Can

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E

F

Footgun

• Definition: Something that is extremely likely to become a problem in the future.
• Example: "Adding this recursive function here might be a footgun."
• Etymology: This comes from the phrase "shooting yourself in the foot".
• Reference

G

Grok

• Definition: To understand something
• Example: "Do you grok that?"

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

Rubber Duck Debugging

• Definition: To explain code to a rubber ducky (or other inanimate object) to help debug or clarify your thought process.
• Example: "Will you be my rubber duck for a second? I need to talk through the logic for my program."
• Etymology: The phrase is a reference to the book The Pragmatic Programmer, where a developer debugs their code by explaining it to a rubber duck.
• Reference

S

T

Toecannon

• See Footgun

U

V

W

Worm Can

• Definition: Something that is likely much more complicated or unpleasant than it seems at first.
• Example: "That bug is likely going to be a worm can."

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