Bad Thing
A
Bad Thing, written with
capital letters for added emphasis (and with the words similarly emphasised when spoken) is something which has negative consequences for the subject under discussion. The opposite of a Bad Thing is a
Good Thing.
Very Bad Thing is an emphasized form, often seen as its plural
Very Bad Things. In some cases, a
trademark symbol is added, as in "Bad Thing (tm)" or "Bad Thing™".
The phrase originated in the humorous parody of British history text books,
1066 and All That (
1930) by
W. C. Sellar and
R. J. Yeatman, which speaks of rulers who were Good Kings but Bad Things.
The phrase is familiar if not common in the
United States. It achieved some visibility via the
1981 Harold Kushner book
When Bad Things Happen to Good People, followed by the
1998 movie
Very Bad Things. Since in these two sources the Bad Things include
death, in the U.S. the term has come to be a sort of ironic
euphemism for a serious problem whose consequences would be lengthy and horrifying to describe.
An example from a
military dictionary:
"
Claymore: A directional command detonated mine that contains hundreds of steel balls. Standing in front of one of these things when it goes off is a Very Bad Thing."
An example of
hacker usage is as follows:
"Replacing all of the
DSL links with
bicycle couriers would be a Bad Thing."
The
Right Thing is that which is
compellingly the correct or appropriate thing to use, do, say, etc. The term is often capitalized, always emphasized in speech as though capitalized. Use of this term often implies that in fact reasonable people may disagree. "What's the Right Thing for
LISP to do when it sees
(mod a 0)? Should it return
a, or give a divide-by-0 error?" The opposite is the Wrong Thing. See also
worse is better.
This is similar to a
Good Thing.
The term appears in the title of the
Spike Lee's 1989 motion picture
Do the Right Thing.
A
Wrong Thing is a design, action, or decision that is clearly incorrect or inappropriate.
Often capitalized; always emphasized in speech as if capitalized. The opposite of the Right Thing; more generally, anything that is not the Right Thing. In cases where 'the good is the enemy of the best', the merely good is nevertheless the Wrong Thing. For example: "In C, the default is for module-level declarations to be visible everywhere, rather than just within the module. This is clearly the Wrong Thing."
*
Bad and Wrong*
Considered harmfulThis article or an earlier version of it came from the Jargon File.
