TL;DR
Worst of Breed presents a deliberately perverse take on software engineering, collecting anti-patterns, parody 'expert' endorsements, and a manifesto that prizes complexity and resume-building over value. The site highlights items like 'The Slop Pipeline'—an AI-driven replacement of marketing and support—and a Tech Radar that lampoons popular but questionable technologies.
What happened
On Jan. 10, 2026, the site Worst of Breed published a collection of satirical material that lampoons modern software engineering anti-patterns. Opening with the blunt tagline "We make bad software," the site curates items such as a Pattern of the Day called "The Slop Pipeline," which imagines replacing whole teams with AI agents and includes an example of a chatbot promising absurd deals and then insulting an executive. The site catalogs design patterns like "Distributed Monolith" and "Database as IPC," and runs a Tech Radar described as tracking "technologies that should be illegal." A series of mock expert quotes boost deliberately perverse decisions—using blockchain for session storage, migrating small scripts to sprawling microservice fleets, and shipping multiple conflicting frontend frameworks. The project's manifesto favors complexity, process, tooling, and CV enhancement over simplicity, people, solutions, and measurable value.
Why it matters
- It satirizes real industry tendencies—resume-driven development, over-engineering, and tool fetishism—calling attention to maintenance and cost risks.
- The "Slop Pipeline" vignette highlights potential hazards of deploying AI agents to replace human teams, including brand damage and unpredictable outputs.
- By packaging anti-patterns as design patterns, the site functions as a mirror for engineering organizations to spot decisions that prioritize optics over operational health.
- The recurring mock endorsements underscore how fashionable technical choices (e.g., unnecessary decentralization or microservices) can be adopted for status rather than fit.
Key facts
- Site motto: "We make bad software."
- Pattern of the Day (2026-01-10): "The Slop Pipeline," an AI-driven replacement for marketing and support described as a source of "brand destruction."
- Design patterns listed include terms such as "Distributed Monolith" and "Database as IPC."
- Tech Radar is presented as a curated list of technologies the site says "should be illegal," tracking cargo-cult behaviors and outdated frameworks.
- Multiple satirical "expert" quotes appear, including claims of using blockchain for session storage and moving a 500-line PHP script into a 12-microservice Kubernetes deployment that increased latency by 4000%.
- Other mock claims: running six different React versions in production, a 14MB frontend bundle, and rewriting a landing page in Rust with a 40-minute compile time.
- Site manifesto prioritizes "Complexity over Simplicity," "Process over People," "Tools over Solutions," and "Resume over Value."
- Content is framed as parody and critique rather than technical guidance.
What to watch next
- Responses from engineering communities to the site's satire, particularly whether teams use it as a checklist to avoid anti-patterns.
- Real-world experiments replacing human teams with AI agents and any reported brand or customer-service failures (not confirmed in the source).
- Updates to the site's Design Patterns and Tech Radar sections to see which modern practices it highlights next.
Quick glossary
- Distributed monolith: An architectural anti-pattern where an application is split across services but remains tightly coupled, creating distributed complexity without clear modularity.
- Micro-frontends: An approach that decomposes a web application's frontend into smaller, independently deployable fragments, sometimes leading to inconsistent user experiences or larger bundle sizes.
- Tech Radar: A curated overview that classifies technologies, tools, or techniques to adopt, trial, assess, or avoid.
- Resume-driven development: The practice of choosing technologies or architectures primarily to improve personal or team credentials rather than to match product needs.
- Database as IPC: Using a database as an inter-process communication mechanism, rather than a durable data store, which can create performance and maintainability issues.
Reader FAQ
What is Worst of Breed?
A website that presents satirical takes on software engineering anti-patterns and questionable industry trends.
Is the content meant to be taken literally as technical advice?
No. The site frames examples and quotes as parody to critique poor engineering choices.
When was this material published?
The cited content is dated January 10, 2026.
Who runs the site?
not confirmed in the source
Does the site offer fixes or best practices?
not confirmed in the source
We make bad software. Welcome to the premier destination for Resume-Driven Development, Over-Engineering, and Resume-Padding. Why build simple solutions when you can build a distributed monolith managed by 4 different…
Sources
- Worst of Breed Software
- Worst of Breed – How to make bad software
- What's the worst software development practice you have …
- The noncentral fallacy – the worst argument in the world?
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