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What you are espousing is known as “defensive programming” which is very much a bad thing (tm).

I'm interested in hearing more about why defensive programming is bad. Do you have some links for me?

Clearly you've never worked with contract developers whose only purpose is to write a crap ton of code to get a "feature" out that crashes as soon as it encounters the real world. As they say, "doveryay, no proveryay" and it's served me well.

> As they say, "doveryay, no proveryay"

I'm sorry if this might be common knowledge, but I've honestly never heard this and can't understand it.

Is it saying that it's better to do something than to (formally) prove it, like the opposite of (I think) Knuth's famous quote?

"trust, but verify". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trust,_but_verify

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