[akkartik]

It's a bug, but it's also an example of what I think of as differential accountability:

* Bugs in the bot inevitably assign ownership to the writer rather than from the writer.

* Bugs in the billing system invariably overcharge customers

* Bugs in the image recognition system invariably select white people.

Well-meaning people still follow their incentives. Corners have to get cut somewhere.

I totally agree this isn't specific to MS. We have seen the enemy, and it is us.

[micimize]

This isn't true – the only billing system bug I've seen undercharged. Also if it was an overcharge, they would have made customer whole, whereas they wrote off the undercharge.

Microsoft doesn't really gain anything here – there's a clear "forked from" qualifier in the repo, they aren't republishing these packages, etc. The only people who noticed noticed in a negative light.

[akkartik]

To reiterate, I'm not saying there's malicious intent in any single bug. Yes, billing errors don't lead to more revenue for the firm. I'm describing rather a systemic bias in incentives for the people doing the work (programmers) and supervising the work (managers).

[m3047]

I believe "moral hazard" is the term of art for what you describe.

[akkartik]

Approximately. Moral hazard typically refers to sins of commission. Deliberately taking on more risk because you're insured. Here I'm thinking more of sins of omission. You just forgot to do something. You didn't have enough attention to devote to the task, so you rationally apportioned the attention budget to the areas most likely to be checked by others.