---
title: "Godwin's Law"
url: "https://osherove.com/blog/2004/12/9/godwins-law.md"
canonical: "https://osherove.com/blog/2004/12/9/godwins-law.html"
published: "2004-12-09T23:17:00"
updated: "2004-12-09T23:17:00"
tags: ["Off Topic"]
author: "Roy Osherove"
description: "I have to say that a discussion about unit testing is the last place I expected this to show up (right after someone mentioned the term \" programmer Nazis \": \"Godwin's Law States: \"As an online discussion grows longer,…"
usage: "Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page)."
license: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
---

# Godwin's Law

By Roy Osherove December 9, 2004 In [Off Topic](https://osherove.com/blog/category/off-topic)

**Historical article** · Originally published December 9, 2004; technical details may be outdated.

I have to say that [a discussion about unit testing](http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?joel.3.41287.15) is the last place I expected this to show up (right after someone mentioned the term "_programmer Nazis_":

_"Godwin's Law States:
"As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one."
_[_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's\_law_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law)

_Jared
Thursday, December 09, 2004 "_

Followed by this:

_"Just so you know:
There is a tradition in many Usenet newsgroups that once such a comparison is made, the thread is over, and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically lost whatever argument was in progress. In addition, whoever points out that Godwin's Law applies to the thread is also considered to have "lost" the battle, as it is considered poor form to invoke the law explicitly.

Again, that is from wikipedia.  So, this thread should be over._

_Jared
Thursday, December 09, 2004 "_

## More in Off Topic

[All posts in Off Topic](https://osherove.com/blog/category/off-topic)

- Dec 13, 2004

    ### [Where should I host my interview with Johanna Rothman?](https://osherove.com/blog/2004/12/13/where-should-i-host-my-interview-with-johanna-rothman.html)

- Dec 11, 2004

    ### [What I look like (kinda)](https://osherove.com/blog/2004/12/11/what-i-look-like-kinda.html)

- Dec 8, 2004

    ### [Chatting with Johanna Rothman](https://osherove.com/blog/2004/12/8/chatting-with-johanna-rothman.html)

- Dec 3, 2004

    ### [The Self Project - YAPP (Yet Another Programming Paradigm?)](https://osherove.com/blog/2004/12/3/the-self-project-yapp-yet-another-programming-paradigm.html)


---

## About the author

**Roy Osherove**: Senior Solutions Architect at AWS working on AI for production and AI-driven development; author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership, with about 20 years of consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery.

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- [RobotPaper](https://robotpaper.ai/): This blog: AI patterns and anti-patterns, AI and coding agents, and engineering leadership.
- [osherove.com](https://osherove.com): Roy's personal site. Author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership; consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery, plus about 20 years of blog posts.
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- [5whys.com](https://www.5whys.com): Roy's writing on software team leadership: self-organizing teams, surviving chaos, learning mode and the Elastic Leadership model.
- [Pipeline Driven](https://pipelinedriven.org): Continuous delivery and DevOps practices: build patterns, pipeline-friendly testing, DevOps metrics and enterprise DevOps.
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### License

Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page). License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/