awesome-falsehood

A curated directory of documented “falsehoods” programmers commonly believe about real‑world domains (such as time, names, and geography), with references and explanations.

• Website: https://github.com/kdeldycke/awesome-falsehood
• Category: Themed Directories
• Tags: programming, documentation, awesome-lists
• Author/Brand: kdeldycke

Overview

awesome-falsehood is an open, community-maintained list that catalogs incorrect assumptions developers often make when modeling real-world concepts in software. Each entry typically points to articles, standards, or discussions that explain why the assumption is wrong and how to design systems more robustly.

Features

• Curated “Awesome” List

  • Listed as an “Awesome” project (follows the awesome-list format and quality bar).
  • Focused specifically on false assumptions and pitfalls in software design.

• Domain-Focused Falsehood Collections
  While the full README contains the detailed sections, this list is described as covering domains such as:

  • Time and dates (time zones, leap years, calendars, etc.)
  • Personal names and identity
  • Geography and locations
  • Other real-world domains where simple assumptions break down

• Explanations and References

  • Each falsehood or group of falsehoods is paired with context, explanations, and/or external resources.
  • Helps clarify why specific assumptions fail in production systems.

• Developer-Centric Documentation Resource

  • Intended for programmers and architects designing data models, validation rules, and business logic.
  • Supports more resilient and inclusive system design by highlighting edge cases.

• Multi-language Documentation

  • Main README available in English (readme.md).
  • Additional Chinese translation (readme.zh.md).

• Repository Structure

  • assets/ for images (including the header image).
  • .github/ configuration for repository workflows/community aspects.
  • license file defining reuse terms.
  • Ancillary support files such as .lycheeignore for link checking.

• Open Source & Community Contributions

  • Hosted on GitHub as a public repository.
  • Maintained through commits and pull requests from the community.

Licensing

• Contains a license file in the repository specifying open-source terms (see the GitHub repo for exact license text).

Pricing

• No pricing listed; this is an open GitHub repository / documentation resource, freely accessible.

Ideal Use Cases

• As a checklist before designing schemas and validation rules for user data.
• As a teaching resource for software engineering, highlighting real-world complexity.
• As reference material when debugging production issues caused by oversimplified assumptions.