Computer Wisdom

This was recently forwarded to me from a friend at Intel. It is the comments of a programmer who was departing for a 12 month leave-of-absense (the identity of the program was lost, perhaps intentionally, after several forwardings of the message). I think it sums up many common problems among computer professionals, or wannabes.

... Things haven't quite happened the way I was expecting, but I have been learning many valuable things along the way. Here are a few of them:

• Never be afraid to ask for help.
• Solve problems rather than assign blame.
• Foster an environment in which asking questions or admitting ignorance isn't viewed as a personal weakness.
• Eschew the macho super-hacker role model. The image of the ideal programmer as someone that when presented with a problem can take it away, not ask any questions, nor for any help, and can then come back two days later with a perfect solution is very harmful.
• Be your own duck. Think for yourself. Have no respect for the received wisdom. Don't be afraid to speak out.
• Avoid regular meetings. They are a waste of time.
• Use email.
• Answer email promptly. If you don't have time to answer email, don't read it.
• Secrecy is bad. Tell people what you are doing and why you are doing it or don't do it at all.
• Ignore organizational hierarchies and structures. They change frequently, and have nothing to do with people's skills, interests, or abilities.
• Don't assume someone in charge knows what is best.
• Avoid bureaucracy. It is easier to step around a bureaucracy, or work on something else than to waste time dealing with it.
• Anarchy is more efficient than bureaucracy. Bureaucracy doesn't scale well, anarchy does.
• Large organizations develop complex systems.
• Building software is hard.
• System administration is hard.
• Shared memory is hard. So hard it is probably a bad idea.
• Focus on solving problems not technologies. What good is a microkernel or object oriented if it doesn't solve a problems?
• Never underestimate the power of simplicity or the cost of complexity.
• Collect and share information people might find useful.
• Put people in contact with people.
• Thank people that do good things.
• Work together to develop excellent software.
• Have fun!