Perhaps some pointed analogies would help explain the reason I (and I assume most everybody else) like to code with strictures on as much as possible:

• "I don't wear my seat belt because I drive really really carefully, and think about what I'm doing, so I don't need it."
• "As long as I am very careful, I can easily change out an electrical switch without first shutting off the power."
• "I always open boxes by cutting towards myself. Turning the box around is very annoying, and much more awkward. As long as I cut carefully, I will be fine."

While all these things may or may not necessarily make sense, and might seem rather extreme compared to a silly mistyped variable name, I think they illustrate the point. Using strict is not about what happens when everything goes right, but about what happens when something goes wrong. It's not an admission of incompetence or laziness, but a safety net.

Mistakes happen. To say otherwise is simply delusional. The strict pragma helps catch a large amount of common mistakes that might otherwise go unnoticed, or perhaps less noticed, without it. Do not let me try to change your habits for how you write your own code for your own use, but if I ever took over a project without appropriate application of strictures, I would certainly have many choice words for the previous author.

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