Right, Wrong & Right And Wrong

There is being right, and there is being right. There is being wrong, and there is being wrong. There are differences.

Right and Right

You can be right. I hope you are. If you are right, you are empowered, responsible, and in control. To me this is a pleasant state, and dare I say 'neutral'. Let me explain the contrary - Wrong. As the physical universe is made up of opposites, the opposite of right is obviously wrong. There is a big difference that sometimes seems subtle. I can force myself to be right by making others wrong. This is not a pleasant state, or one that is 'neutral'. It takes effort and irresponsibility to be in that state.

Wrong and Wrong

You can be wrong in so many ways. Especially in the field of computer science. Learning is about making mistakes, and making the right ones. Never in existance has anyone ever got everything perfect. Even God, if you are that way inclined. So being wrong can be an ephemearal and neutral state, in the sense of learning from being wrong so you can become right again. Being forced to be wrong is also not a pleasant state. If someone forces me to be wrong I will force myself to be right. This is a state of irresponsibility on both sites. It is not empowering to be wrong, far from it.

Before

I was the type of person who, working on source code, would always refer to it as 'our code'. If I worked on some code I would say 'we did this' or 'we did that'. I am becoming disabused of this idea. It felt natural for me to be inclusive, to begin with. Then at stand up people would say 'I did this' and 'I did that' - even though I helped. Not a good feeling.

Inclusion or Irresponsibility?

Is saying 'our code' or 'we worked on this today' inclusive or is it passing responsibility over to others? i.e. being irrisponsible.

Here is one possibility. If I choose to take full responsibility of my code, and always insist that it is 'my code' I will damn well have to ensure that it works, is bug free, is readable, extendable or refactorable, and efficient. If the code is found to have bugs, I would not be happy. I'm sure some types of people would try and force me to be wrong.

Take Away

Take responsibility for the work I do. Measure twice, cut once - i.e. check and double check my code for qualities mentioned above. Not fall into the cesspit of making others wrong for mistakes. Having a thick skin when people try and degrade you by making you wrong.