One of my favorite collections of "stories" of software development is The Codeless Code http://thecodelesscode.com/contents http://thecodelesscode.com/contents

One of my favorite collections of "stories" of software development is The Codeless Code http://thecodelesscode.com/contents http://thecodelesscode.com/contents (which draws some inspiration from The Rootless Root - http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/unix-koans/ http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/unix-koans/ ) The story of The Purple Beggar ( http://thecodelesscode.com/case/170 http://thecodelesscode.com/case/170 ) is about that phenomenon.