Science Quote by Wietse Venema

“Lack of documentation is becoming a problem for acceptance” is the kind of scientist’s warning that sounds bureaucratic until you hear the alarm bell inside it. Wietse Venema, a security-minded engineer by temperament and résumé, isn’t lamenting missing paperwork; he’s pointing at the invisible infrastructure that determines whether a tool, a system, or an idea gets to count as “real” in the wider world.

The phrasing matters. “Becoming” signals a shift in culture: an earlier era where brilliance, utility, or sheer scarcity could compensate for sparse explanation is ending. “Acceptance” isn’t admiration; it’s legitimacy. It’s the difference between a clever hack used by insiders and a dependable component adopted by institutions that fear downtime, liability, and embarrassment more than they crave novelty.

The subtext is an indictment of a common technical myth: that good code (or good science) should be self-evident. In practice, undocumented work is a gatekeeping mechanism, even when unintentional. It concentrates power among those who were present, those who “just know,” those who can reverse-engineer intent. Documentation is how knowledge survives staffing changes, audits, adversaries, and time.

Contextually, this reads like a snapshot from the maturation of computing and security: a field moving from artisanal craft to industrial practice. As systems become critical public infrastructure, trust has to be manufactured, and documentation is one of its cheapest, bluntest tools. The warning isn’t romantic, but it’s bracingly modern: if you want adoption, explain yourself.