4 ms·
Nice post. I wish I was reading this 6 years ago, but at least I quickly learned to be humble about the quality of my code.
by p10_user 5y ago
Nice post. I wish I was reading this 6 years ago, but at least I quickly learned to be humble about the quality of my code.
- hinkley 5y agoI'm not quite sure how to interpret what you've said exactly. Some of what I said is a performance piece. If I insist that I am human and thus make mistakes, then it makes space both for others to make mistakes and for us to have a frank conversation of how, in our more lucid moments, we can do things that fight/counteract our basic nature. It's morally equivalent to putting a plastic cover over the Big Red Button so that pushing it becomes a conscious and considered act. Deciding to push the button is step 1, moving the cover is step 2, and step 1.5 or 2.5 is realizing this is in fact not what you want to do after all, instead of a momentary bit of inattention, bad judgement, or the Imp of the Perverse.. It's not that I won't make mistakes, but that (hopefully) I a make them less often. But making them less often, I'm entrusted with bigger potential for mistakes, and so my mistakes tend to cause more harm. In a Precautionary Principle sense, we end up roughly within the same order of magnitude. When I make 5x fewer mistakes I'm allowed to be responsible for problems that are twice as risky. If you want candor about mistakes you have to start by giving people permission to make them (or at least, to make new ones).
- p10_user 5y agoEverything you are talking about seems centered around cultivating humility. You are absolutely right. It’s ultimately the ability to allow yourself to make mistakes. Being wrong is no fun. Best to get it over with, accept it and work forward, rather than to bring yourself into some delusion.