Three Terrible Justifications For Why To Do Something
Grade Hopper was one of the pioneers of programming languages and compilers. You can watch one of her talks on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=si9iqF5uTFk
She's a strong proponent that one got to think through the why something must be done. One has to completely understand how that fits into the bigger picture of their role and how it contributes to the overall goals.
The justification she admonishes during this talk is:
- “That's the way it always been done before”
Let me add two common justifications that are also terrible:
- “That's what everyone else is doing”
- “That's just what I was told to do” (even though I don't understand why)