Picture me standing at a lectern. A spray of microphones nearly obscures my face. Camera flashes strobe the room. I am near tears, but resolve to deliver my message:

Ladies and gentlemen, due to an unfortunate coding error, my 1000th post of a few days ago was actually my 996th. I recently added draft posts to my blogging software, and the count incorrectly included drafts. That makes this my 1000th post.

I apologize sincerely to all those readers I mislead. I can assure you that we here at nedbatchelder.com are taking this very seriously, and are taking every step possible to ensure that this kind of mistake will never happen again.

I'm just glad the truth came out before any more damage was done. I hope you will forgive me. I'm going to put this behind me and get back to delivering quality blog posts as soon as possible. I want to publicly thank my wife and family for standing by me through this dark time.

Thank you.

Lessons:

• Don't believe everything you read on the web.
• Test your software.
• Don't rely on external milestones to identify the highlights of your life.