Intentional “Bugs”: Examples

• Secret Writers Society (Panasonic Interactive Media)

• Database shrinks after name is removed

  • individually, avenges laid-off programmers
  • cumulatively, gives programmers a modicum of employment security in a bottom-line marketplace (longer-term thinking)

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One very common “bug” causes databases to begin malfunctioning (losing records, etc.) after a certain condition is met (e.g. the removal of a certain name from the database). This bug serves to avenge laid-off programmers. Also, managerial awareness of its ubiquity has helped give programmers a modicum of employment security in a shark-infested, bottom-line marketplace.

This is a good example of the power oflonger-term thinking, and how longer- and shorter-term thinking can coexist.