User:Jc37/Sandbox/Good Thing and Bad Thing

Good Thing and Bad Thing – written with capital letters for added emphasis, and with the words similarly emphasized when spoken – are jocular phrases that mean what they say, but are given deliberate overemphasis for humorous effect.

Bad Thing and Very Bad Thing

The phrase "Bad Thing" originated in the humorous parody of British history text books, 1066 and All That (1930) by W. C. Sellar and R. J. Yeatman, which designates various historical events as Good Things (e.g., the Roman conquest of Britain "because the Britons were only natives at the time") or Bad Things (e.g., the emergence of America instead of England as "top nation").

The related form "Very Bad Thing" (often pluralized as "Very Bad Things") is also used for even further emphasis. In some cases, a trademark symbol is added, as in "Bad Thing (tm)". In many cases the phrase is used as a deliberate case of understatement.

The "Good Thing/Bad Thing" dichotomy was included in the hacker lexicon the Jargon File, possibly as early as 1975.

Analogues

There are several terms analogous to Bad Thing, most notably the opposite "Good Thing" and the related "Right Thing" and "Wrong Thing". These analogues are all believed to have the same origin as Bad Thing.

Like Bad Thing these analogue terms are usually written using capital letters (sometimes a trademark symbol is added) and emphasized when used in speech as if it were capitalized.

A Good Thing

A Good Thing, is a humorous phrase for anything that is seen as good or desirable. The phrase is particularly used when the writer wishes to emphasize information supposedly unknown to the reader, such as when making a recommendation.

For example: homemaking adviser Martha Stewart recommends tools and techniques with the phrase "It's a Good Thing."

This is the opposite of a Bad Thing.

The Right Thing

The Right Thing means that which is compellingly the correct or appropriate thing to use, do, say, etcetera. Use of this term often implies that in fact reasonable people may disagree, but the choice seemed far superior over alternatives considered by the decision maker.

Technical example: "What's the Right Thing for LISP to do when it sees (mod a 0)? Should it return a, or give a divide-by-0 error?"

This is similar to a Good Thing.

Wrong Thing

A Wrong Thing is a design, action, or decision that is clearly incorrect or inappropriate. Generally, anything that is not the Right Thing. In cases where "the best is the enemy of the good" (Voltaire, at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/v/voltaire138211.html), the best — although the best — is nevertheless the Wrong Thing.

Technical example: "In C, the default is for module-level declarations to be visible everywhere, rather than just within the module. This is clearly the Wrong Thing."

This is the opposite of a Right Thing.

See also

• Considered harmful
• Doublethink
• Mr. Skullhead
• Worse is better

References

Category:Phrases Category:English phrases Category:Computer jargon