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Terms of Service — TL;DR: doubt and fact-check everything I've written!
- ola:: cause-and-effect are reversed
- eg: windmills
- windmill rotation speed $\propto$ more wind (therefore causes)
- eg: cholesterol / mortality
- low cholesterol $\propto$ mortality (therefore causes)
- but diseases cause cholesterol
- eg: unclear cause
- TV violence $\propto$ teenage violence (therefore causes)
Software testing produces more bugs
[[False cause]] (broken link, note not found) / correlation implies causation: The statement assumes that writing more tests causes more bugs, when in reality, it’s more plausible that:
- More complex software has more bugs and more tests.
- More tests are written because bugs were found or are expected — not the other way around. Reverse causation (a subtype of false cause):
- It could also be a case of mistaking effect for cause. That is, there are more tests because there are more bugs, not that tests create bugs.