Comment by hcrisp

Chapter 1 of The Mythical Man Month by the same author is called "The Tar Pit" and has this memorable opening paragraph:

> No scene from prehistory is quite so vivid as that of the mortal struggles of great beasts in the tar pits. In the mind's eye one sees dinosaurs, mammoths, and sabertoothed tigers struggling against the grip of the tar. The fiercer the struggle, the more entangling the tar, and no beast is so strong or so skillful but that he ultimately sinks.

> Large-system programming has over the past decade been such a tar pit, and many great and powerful beasts have thrashed violently in it...