Programming is like sex. One mistake and you have to support it for the rest of your life.

Small decisions, permanent consequences

This joke lands because it captures something genuinely true about commitment—both kinds involve consequences that don't just vanish. When you write code, especially in a professional setting, you're not just solving today's problem. You're creating something that other people will depend on, build on top of, and curse you for years later when they discover your shortcuts or overlooked edge cases.

The real insight isn't crude humor; it's that small decisions compound in ways we can't fully predict. You ship a feature with a particular architecture, and suddenly migrating away from it becomes impossibly expensive. You choose a library, and now your whole system depends on its quirks. This forces a kind of responsibility that's easy to ignore when you're focused on getting something working quickly.

What makes this quote stick is that it applies beyond programming. It's about how carefulness matters most when fixing mistakes later costs way more than preventing them upfront. That applies to relationships, financial commitments, organizational structures, even how you respond to someone in anger. The cost of supporting a mistake isn't always explicit, but it's rarely zero. Sometimes the best decision isn't the fastest one—it's the one you can live with comfortably for years.