3 ms·

Or because bad légal documents become obvious immediately, while bad code has a 2-3 year incubation period.

by hengheng 1y ago

i_am_jl 1y ago
I am not understanding the joke.
- arcanemachiner 1y ago
  They're saying that the language in such a document could be read and discovered almost immediately, whereas the logic bomb sitting inside a bunch of poorly written code may take years before it finally explodes.
  - i_am_jl 1y ago
    ...while ignoring that flaws in legal documents are not always immediately obvious, and bugs in code are not always difficult to discover.
bigfatkitten 1y ago
Not always. Contracts for example sometimes contain landmines that lay undiscovered for a decade or more. A key difference is that law is an actual profession. It has qualification, continuing professional development and licensing requirements, and personal consequences for getting it wrong. None of these things are true for software development.
margalabargala 1y ago
I would argue they are pretty similar. It's not hard for a bad clause in a contract to get overlooked at first and then become a problem years later. Example: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/think-commas-don-t-matter-omitting-one-cost-maine-dairy-n847151 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/think-commas-don-t-matt...
CPLX 1y ago
I’m pretty fluent in both worlds and they are actually highly equivalent on this one specific point. In both cases it looks perfect and it works right up until it doesn’t, usually for the same reason, entering an unanticipated state.
rsynnott 1y ago
Unfortunately that's not always the case. Bad _arguments in a case_, sure, but bad contracts? I'd fully expect that in 30 years some unfortunate lawyer will be attempting to untangle nonsense drafted by a 2020s LLM. (Actually, it only just occurred to me, lots of laypeople are going to use these to draft _wills_, aren't they? That should be entertaining.)

Or because bad légal documents become obvious immediately, while bad code has a 2-3 year incubation period.

i_am_jl 1y ago

I am not understanding the joke.

arcanemachiner 1y ago
They're saying that the language in such a document could be read and discovered almost immediately, whereas the logic bomb sitting inside a bunch of poorly written code may take years before it finally explodes.
- i_am_jl 1y ago
  ...while ignoring that flaws in legal documents are not always immediately obvious, and bugs in code are not always difficult to discover.

bigfatkitten 1y ago

Not always. Contracts for example sometimes contain landmines that lay undiscovered for a decade or more. A key difference is that law is an actual profession. It has qualification, continuing professional development and licensing requirements, and personal consequences for getting it wrong. None of these things are true for software development.

margalabargala 1y ago

I would argue they are pretty similar. It's not hard for a bad clause in a contract to get overlooked at first and then become a problem years later. Example: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/think-commas-don-t-matter-omitting-one-cost-maine-dairy-n847151 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/think-commas-don-t-matt...

CPLX 1y ago

I’m pretty fluent in both worlds and they are actually highly equivalent on this one specific point. In both cases it looks perfect and it works right up until it doesn’t, usually for the same reason, entering an unanticipated state.

rsynnott 1y ago

Unfortunately that's not always the case. Bad _arguments in a case_, sure, but bad contracts? I'd fully expect that in 30 years some unfortunate lawyer will be attempting to untangle nonsense drafted by a 2020s LLM. (Actually, it only just occurred to me, lots of laypeople are going to use these to draft _wills_, aren't they? That should be entertaining.)