CONTEXTVS, STVLTE! (Context, stupid!)

Room 5

"The best sorting algorithm is quick sort." "Indexes make DB faster." "Data should be sorted using ORDER BY." "Composition - good; inheritance - not good." "Windows is an operating system." "You must have transactions in your DB." "Java is slow." "Don't eat yellow snow." "You shall not self-sign your certificates." "Interrupt in Java is broken."

The IT world is full of mantras/revealed truth, passed (often in oral tradition) among developer tribes. Mindlessly repeated from generation to generation, they cause a reckless usage. At best this results in more harm than good, in the worst case: a total disaster worth whole train of money. The context is indispensable part of each mantra. Right context can help to distinguish proper usage from incoming disaster.

Do you believe in a mantra by any chance? How to find out the context? Can one eat a yellow snow? Come and see.