Three Great Virtues (Part 3/3)

Hubris is probably the most misunderstood of all the programmer virtues. But you're in luck - I'm Teochew, and if anyone understands arrogance, it's us.

The Virtue of the Great Programmer - Hubris

Developer ego is more commonplace than you'd expect. Any developer with some experience under his belt is going to be rather opinionated about how things should be done. Programming is about bending the will of a machine to our own, and making it churn out the results we want. It is about creating usable objects out of virtually nothing. It is about dealing in languages many people are too intimidated by to even attempt. And getting paid for it. Why wouldn't we be arrogant? Consider the quote below from Robert C Martin, in his book The Clean Coder.

"Programming is an act of creation. When we write code we are creating something out of nothing. We are boldly imposing order upon chaos. We are confidently commanding, in precise detail, the behaviors of a machine that could otherwise do incalculable damage. And so, programming is an act of supreme arrogance."

Robert C Martin seems to be a bit of an extremist in his views, and more than a little verbose. But in this case, he hit home for me right there.

But... but, but.

Why be modest when
you're that good?

In order for hubris to be a virtue, it has to work for you. It has to help you in your development. It has to drive you.

It has to spur you on to create products that people can only praise. Any code attributed to your name has to achieve great things. That arrogance manifests itself as pride in your work.

It has to inspire you to go boldly where no one has gone before. "A hundred programmers have failed? Well, I'll be the hundred and first." "Better men have tried and failed? Bitch, there ain't no better man." In fact, I believe that it is this same audacity to try something different, something unthinkable, that separates great programmers like Bill Gates (daring to succeed despite dropping out of university? The sheer gall.) and Linus "I'm always right" Torvalds from the rest.

How not to be Arrogant

Some forms of arrogance manifest as a belief that one has already learned all that is worth learning, and there is no need to keep exploring. That's arrogant, sure... it's also foolish. Dangerously so. Technology is constantly evolving. As I type this, a few million hackers around the world have figured out newer and more insidious ways to breach web security. New frameworks are threatening to render the ones you use obsolete. New features in your favorite programming language are causing older features to be deprecated. Going down this path is a sure route to ruin. There's a place for arrogance. Not so for complacency.

Refusal to listen to feedback is another dangerous manifestation of arrogance. Sure, not all feedback is created equal. If, for example, you haven't written a line of code your entire misbegotten life and have the audacity to comment on my professionalism, be prepared to be very firmly put in your place. On the other hand, working too close to the product can lead to blind spots, and sometimes - just sometimes - fresh perspectives are helpful even if they are from laypeople. There's also a tendency for a developer's ego to lead to defensiveness - such as refusing to concede an argument or admit that someone else knows more than you do. That is insecurity. If you're confident enough in your own abilities and value, you don't ever need to travel that rocky road.

Then there's the Not Invented Here syndrome. The pragmatic developer understands that there is no shame in collaboration or leveraging off someone else's work. "Real devs code from scratch"? What kind of egoistical rubbish is that? No matter what you do, you're leveraging off the work of Ada Lovelace, mother of the modern computer. Want to be a "real dev"? Go re-invent algorithms!

So...

Are you an adequate, good or great programmer?

This is, as you may have suspected, just my opinion. There are many ways to interpret the words of Larry Wall. In fact, I have no real business telling anyone how to achieve greatness in programming - after all, I'm just about adequate myself, on some days anyway. Like many people, I have my moments. Some days I feel like I'm Neo from the Matrix, and some days I wonder why I'm even employed.

But in general, yes, most developers fall around the "adequate - good" axis, with only the top echelons making it into the "great" category. Still, "adequate" is a good goal, and "good" is a respectable one.

Be virtuous!

Too impatient to sign off properly, too lazy to care.
T___T