历史与人物snopes.com
为什么 Van Halen 的合同要求去除所有棕色 M&M 巧克力豆
Why Van Halen's contract calls for the removal of all brown M&Ms
2009 — 2014，它一次次回到首页
黑点是上首页（≥ 50 分）的那次投稿，空心点是没冲上去的投稿，点越大分数越高。
导读
Snopes 这篇文章讲的是范海伦乐队巡演合同里那条著名条款：后台不能出现棕色 M&M 豆。它并非单纯的耍大牌，而是用作“金丝雀”测试：如果场地没注意到这个显眼细节，就说明合同里更重要的舞台安全与制作要求可能也没被认真执行。
为什么经久不衰：它把一个看似任性的要求变成经典的细节管理寓言，至今仍被技术和项目管理领域反复引用。
HN 评论精选
这条评论点明了棕色 M&M 豆是检测对方是否认真履约的信号。
总结一下：棕色 M&M 豆是一个“金丝雀”，用来判断合同的所有细节是否都被落实。如果出现了棕色 M&M 豆，他们就会更严格地检查合同其余条款。
sh1mmer查看英文原文
To summarise the brown M&Ms were a "canary" to indicate if all the details of the contract had been attended too. If there were brown M&Ms then the rest of the contractual points would be examined with more stringency. It's interesting that they used this as a careful "get out clause" or an indicator of other more serious ones.
评论用橙汁测试类比：对方轻易承诺不可能完成的要求，反而暴露其不可靠。
这让我想起“橙汁测试”：你为数百人组织年会，告诉候选酒店的宴会经理，早餐必须给每位参会者一大杯鲜榨橙汁，而且必须在早餐前两小时内榨好。这其实不可能做到，短时间内榨这么多橙汁成本高得离谱。如果经理答应，他要么在撒谎，要么无能，你最好换一家会告诉你“做不到”的酒店。
Monkeyget查看英文原文
It reminds me of the orange juice test. You organize an annual convention for hundreds of people. You tell the banquet manager of the hotel you are considering that the morning breakfast must include a large glass of freshly squeezed orange juice for everyone of the attendees. It must be squeezed no more than two hours before the breakfast. It is not possible to do so. Squeezing that much orange in much a short amount of time would be prohibitively expensive. If the manager says yes he is either lying or incompetent and you'd better find someone else who will tell you it's not possible.
评论用“只写存储器”的恶作剧说明：审批流程若无人真正核对细节，就会形同虚设。
工程师版本：只写存储器。Signetics 的一位工程师厌倦了冗长而看似无用的元件规格审批流程，因为审批中似乎没人真正检查，于是写了一份“只写存储器”的规格，混进一堆待审批规格里。直到普通客户开始打电话询问报价，Signetics 管理层才注意到这件事；公司随后发布了数据手册的更正版，并要求收回那份“错误”的资料。
emiliobumachar查看英文原文
Engineer's version: Write-only memory " Out of frustration with the long and seemingly useless chain of approvals required of component specifications during which no actual checking seemed to occur, an engineer at Signetics once created a specification for a write-only memory and included it with a bunch of other specifications to be approved. This inclusion came to the attention of Signetics management only when regular customers started calling and asking for pricing information. Signetics published a corrected edition of the data book and requested the return of the 'erroneous' literature."
评论把棕色 M&M 豆引申为技术工作中必须逐项验证的关键细节。
技术工作有趣的一点是，它几乎全是“棕色 M&M 豆”。这个领域对细节的重视程度惊人，细节不到位，东西很快就会直接不能用。我们一次次看到，上线时没检查“棕色 M&M 豆”，结果耗资数百万美元的企业级网站，在十几个并发用户面前就崩溃了。
bane查看英文原文
One of the interesting things about tech work is that it's almost all "brown M&Ms". It's amazing how important attention to detail is in this field and how quickly something will simply not work if the details aren't sweated. We see it time and again when things go into production where the "brown M&Ms" haven't been looked into and we end up with things like enterprise class websites that cost millions of dollars to produce crumbling under the load of a dozen simultaneous users.
历次讨论
同类还值得读
开发者无薪坚持完成 Mac 图形计算器：一个秘密项目的故事
Dev stays without pay to finish Mac Graphing Calculator as skunkworks project
苹果 Mac 图形计算器（Graphing Calculator）开发者的亲述：在项目被砍后，几位工程师在没有报酬、没有正式授权的情况下，以“地下项目”方式偷偷留在公司把软件做完…
历史与人物上首页 6 次 · 2009–2022pacifict.com理查德·费曼与 Connection Machine
Richard Feynman and the Connection Machine
长文回忆费曼晚年参与 Connection Machine 并行计算机项目的经历：他分析路由器、用自创的并行 Basic 编写 QCD 程序，也涉足细胞自动机等主题。
历史与人物上首页 5 次 · 2010–2021longnow.org编辑精选负 2000 行代码
-2000 Lines of Code
folklore.org 上 Andy Hertzfeld 记录的一则苹果 Macintosh 开发轶事：Bill Atkinson 被问到写了多少行代码时，回答“-2000 行…
历史与人物上首页 4 次 · 2014–2022folklore.org编辑精选Dennis Ritchie 的第一版 C 编译器（约 1972 年）
Dennis Ritchie’s first C compiler (c. 1972)
这个 GitHub 仓库保存了 Dennis Ritchie 约 1972 年编写的最早 C 编译器源码，是 C 语言和 Unix 早期历史的一手材料。
历史与人物上首页 4 次 · 2013–2025github.com一位破解赛马密码的赌徒
A Gambler Who Cracked the Horse-Racing Code (2018)
彭博社 2018 年的长篇特写，讲述数学家 Bill Benter 如何用统计模型和算法在赛马博彩中持续盈利、累计赢得近十亿美元的故事。
历史与人物上首页 4 次 · 2018–2024bloomberg.com