When I hear from a manager that I must be absolutely certain that some complex system utterly beyond my control must work without the possibility of error, I le

When I hear from a manager that I must be absolutely certain that some complex system utterly beyond my control must work without the possibility of error, I leave. (I have done this.) Life is too short to spend it working with manipulative turds, let alone smug imbeciles with no comprehension of computational complexity, recusive unsolvability, probability, the problem of knowledge, the philosophy of science, and on and on. I hate to sound so negative, but surrounding yourself with individuals capable of this kind of psychological torture when the subject of software guarantees is a research industry with an extensive literature going back at least to the Mythical Man Month is bad for your health. I find it deeply offensive that one has to respond respectfully and professionally to outrageous demands as if they were reasonable.