In the good ole days, if we hit an error message, we’d just write to the console a routine insult to the user.

If input_arg<0 then Print “You are such a dumb ass”

We now hide our contempt in secret code

If input_arg<0 then Print “Please contact your administrator”
/* You are such a dumb ass */

Sometimes we prefer the “I’m smarter than the runtime” pattern and send developers on a goose chase.