Software development topics I've changed my mind on

The prose writing metaphor also falls apart the moment one admits that prose doesn't have the need (and is actually very terrible at) working collaboratively, concurrently but not perfectly synchronized and continuously on the same body of text, ensuring at the same time that combined changes don't add up to unwanted/wrong semantics, even in the long term. Are consistent indentations, variable names etc. strictly required for that? No, not logically, but the real world in which our software must be built is resource constrained, so every minute I spend parsing weird formatting inconsistencies is one minute less I can focus on the actual problem that needs solving. Just use a formatter/linter everyone. And I promise I don't care how it's configured, as long as it's consistent across the codebase

Plenty of writers work collaboratively, fyi. Even fiction authors like my mother routinely deal with multiple drafts and edits from multiple editors who review and suggest changes, from peer authors to professional editors contracted by the publishing house. And non-fiction authors routinely collaborate, too. I personally know some consequential non-fiction books where another author ghost wrote troublesome sections, not taking credit except in private.

And this ignores the collaborative writing many authors do to pay the bills: technical writing at large corporations, like bank manuals and such, or academic writing at universities. While consistency and standards are enforced, nobody's arguing that everyone else should really indent paragraphs their way, because that's the best way.