As I’ve said many times—too many times?—I love a proverb, an aphorism, a “Secret of Adulthood.”

I have some favorites that I repeat all the time. Here are a few proverbs that I quote constantly: “You can’t push a rope.” “A stumble may prevent a fall.” “Learning makes a man fit company for himself.” (That’s very relevant in the age of AI).

One of my very favorites is “It’s not a bug, it’s a feature.” This proverb is invoked by software developers, when they argue that something that might be seen as a mistake or a flaw in their program is actually something useful that it has been purposefully created to do.

This turns out to be surprisingly applicable to everyday life. I find myself repeating this line often. It’s astonishing how often something that one person describes as a bug can also be claimed as a feature.

For instance, with medication, sometimes one person’s negative side effect is the very reason that someone else takes that medication.

I have a serious cat allergy, but I don’t like taking certain kinds of antihistamines, because they make me feel so sleepy. And other people take those antihistamines, because they want to feel sleepy; they don’t care about the effect on allergies. One person’s negative side effect is another person’s reason for taking the medication. 

I recently joined the newsletter platform Substack. One thing about Substack is that it’s very easy, even for a non-technical person, to figure out how to send a newsletter. It’s simple to use. That’s a feature—and a bug. If you’re trying to do very complicated or sophisticated things with a newsletter, it’s not a great tool for you. For you, that same simplicity could be a bug.

Another example, to me, is the open plan or open concept home–the interior design that minimizes walls between different areas such as the kitchen, dining room, and living room.

Some people love the open plan – they like the feeling of living space being wide open, with everyone hanging out together all the time. But for other people—and I count myself in this group—those very features are a bug, not a feature. I like smaller rooms that feel more defined, and which separate different activities from each other.

The problem arises when one person decides that they are “right” about something being a bug, or a feature. Because often the very same characteristic is both a bug and a feature. It all depends on you.