Footgun Memes

You know that feeling when you think you're being galaxy-brained by micro-optimizing something, only to discover you've actually created a legendary footgun? That's vector<bool> in C++. Someone on the standards committee thought "Hey, let's make vector<bool> store each boolean as a single bit instead of a byte to save memory!" Sounds brilliant, right? Wrong. Because now it doesn't behave like other vectors—you can't get actual references to elements, it breaks templates, and it violates the principle of least surprise harder than finding out your "senior developer" doesn't know what a pointer is. The C++ standards committee literally admitted this was a mistake. When the people who invented the thing tell you it was a bad idea, you know someone got a little too clever for their own good. Sometimes the straightforward solution of using a whole byte per bool is the right call. Premature optimization strikes again!

Someone wants to overload the == operator for value comparison instead of reference comparison. Java, being Java, has a complete meltdown because that would be "abuse." Meanwhile, C++ just shrugs and says "go ahead" when asked about overloading the & operator to nuke an object's internal data. Java protects you from yourself by refusing operator overloading entirely. C++ hands you a loaded footgun and a blindfold, then walks away whistling. One language thinks you're a child who can't be trusted with scissors. The other assumes you're a responsible adult who definitely won't use operator overloading to create cursed abominations that make code reviewers weep. Spoiler: C++ is wrong about you being responsible.