Yes, Virginia, there are monsters . . .

. . . but there are no silver bullets, or +4 vorpal blades of wounding, or any other [Insert magical, non-existent, deus ex machina method] to slay them with.

I am currently involved in a project that has a certain amount of mass and inertia associated with it. This bulk leads to essentially no one making changes to it that might be too massive. Why? Because no one knows what will break and stop working. Why? No tests. Writing tests was something that they'd get to. Someday. Maybe. If they hired somebody for that. Or maybe not. I mean, its not needed, right? We have gotten by this long with out it, right?

Right? Negative, Ghostrider, the pattern is full.

And yet, this bloated rotting code base sits there and taunts you. Because it knows its a monster and it knows that there is no such thing as silver bullets. And it also knows that the leadership is going to continue to search for that one line code solution (peppered with the correct amount of buzzwords), and therefore the code dragon can continue to grow and fester.

And laugh at me.