Awesome Falsehoods

Website: https://github.com/kdeldycke/awesome-falsehood#readme
Category: Themed Directories
Tags: documentation, education, software
Brand: sindresorhusawesome

Overview

Awesome Falsehoods is a curated "awesome" list that documents common false assumptions programmers make about the real world and how it is represented in software. It groups these falsehoods by domain to help developers design more robust, correct systems.

Features

• Curated awesome list

  • Part of the broader "awesome" ecosystem of high-quality, community-maintained lists.
  • Focused specifically on false assumptions in software and data modeling.

• Definition-focused content

  • Treats a falsehood as an idea that initially seems obviously true but breaks down under real-world edge cases.
  • Encourages critical thinking about domain modeling and data validation.

• Domain-based organization

  • Falsehoods are grouped by domain (e.g., time, names, addresses, geography, etc.—as is typical for this list) so programmers can explore topics relevant to their current work.

• Documentation and education resource

  • Used as a reference to avoid common pitfalls in software design.
  • Helpful for onboarding, code review discussions, and architecture planning.

• Multi-language README

  • Primary documentation available in English (readme.md).
  • Chinese translation provided (readme.zh.md).

• Repository structure

  • assets/ for images and visual assets (e.g., header image).
  • .github/ for repository and community configuration.
  • License file included for open usage under the specified terms.

• Community-maintained

  • Hosted on GitHub, with a history of many commits and ongoing updates.
  • Accepts contributions via standard GitHub workflows (issues, pull requests).

Use Cases

• Learning common mistakes in domain modeling before starting a new feature.
• Reviewing system designs to uncover hidden assumptions.
• Teaching software engineering students or junior developers about real-world data complexity.
• Using examples in documentation, talks, and internal guidelines to improve software correctness.

Pricing

• Access to the list and repository is free and open-source (no pricing plans mentioned).