Gotcha #12: Adolescent Behavior

We programmers are good at dispensing advice but often have a hard time following it. We preach against global variables, poor variable names, magic numbers and the like, but often insert them into our own code. This phenomenon confounded me for many years, until I read a magazine article that described the same phenomenon in adolescents. It's apparently common for adolescents to criticize risky behavior in others but, through a "personal fantasy," come to believe that they themselves are immune from any negative effects of engaging in that same behavior. As a class, then, programmers seem to suffer from arrested emotional development.

I've worked on projects where some programmers not only refused to follow coding standards but threatened to quit if they were required to indent four spaces instead of two. I've been in situations where one clique refused to attend meetings if the other clique was attending. I've seen programmers deliberately write undocumented and impenetrable code so no one else could maintain it. I've seen otherwise capable programmers refuse to accept advice from an older/younger/too straight/excessively pierced coworker, and head for disaster as a result.

Emotionally adolescent or not, as professional programmers we all have a number of adult, or at least professional, responsibilities. (See also the Association for Computing Machinery's positions on these issues, in the ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct and Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice.)

First, we have a duty to our chosen profession to do quality work to the best standards of which we are capable.

Second, we have a duty to the society in which we live and the planet on which we live. Our chosen profession is equal parts science and practical service. If our work does not contribute to making the world a better place to live, it is a waste of our talent, time, and, ultimately, our lives.

Third, we have the duty to our community to share our expertise in ways that affect governmental policy. In our increasingly technological society, most important decisions are made by persons schooled in the law or in politics but who are technologically illiterate and innumerate. For example, for a time one of the states had a law decreeing that the value of p was 3. That's funny (though wheeled transport was bumpy until the law was repealed), but a lot of the uninformed policy decisions we see are not. We have a duty to inform political debate with rational technical and numerate interpretation of policy.

Fourth, we have a duty to our colleagues to be collegial. This involves following local coding and design standards (if they're no good, we should change them, not ignore them), writing code that can be maintained, and listening to others while sharing our own perspectives.

This is in no way an exhortation to pick up pom-poms and be a "team player" or to encourage the adoption of the prevailing corporate uniform or social outlook. Some of my most satisfying professional collaborations have been with oddly dressed loners with unusual political positions and unique personal habits. But each of these cherished colleagues respected both me and my ideas (to the extent of telling me off when I deserved it, and letting me know I was wrong when I was), and worked with me to accomplish what we had together agreed to accomplish.

Fifth, we have a duty to others in our profession to share our knowledge and experience.

Sixth, we have a duty to ourselves. Our work and our thoughts should satisfy us and speak to the reasons for which we entered this profession. If we're passionate about what we do, if what we do is an essential part of what we are, the duties above will not be a burden; they will be a joy.