Last week, I shared the qualities The Pragmatic Programmer posits comprise a good software engineer. This week, I want to talk about one of them more in depth: “Care About Your Craft.”
On the cardstock fold-out in the back of the book, a tip reads “Why spend your life developing software unless you care about doing it well?” The idea that a person should always do their best is insidious. I know that’s not quite what the book claims, but the messaging is similar. “Care”, “do it well”, “do your best”, “why bother doing it if you don’t do it excellently” . . . all of these sentiments converge to the same call to action. Should we always be putting 100% of ourselves into our work? If not, what should the percentage be? What energy does that leave for the rest of our lives? How does this relate to the burnout epidemic?
To be clear, I’m not suggesting that a person shouldn’t care about their work, nor that I don’t care about my own work. I care. That’s why I picked up this book. I care a lot, and so I do want to do well. But if “well” isn’t 100%, then what is it? What does it mean to (in a healthy way) care about your craft? And is that amount enough?
You may ask, “enough for what?”, and I realize I don’t know. But that seems like the key question.
The Pragmatic Programmer references a medieval quarry worker’s creed — “We who cut mere stones must always be envisioning cathedrals.” It’s a beautiful idea.
Perhaps enough for that.
I’m also reminded of one of the first few tips in the book — “It’s Your Life.” And, honestly, I think this should have been the very first tip, because it’s the context in which to view everything else. I’ll spend 80,000 hours of my life at my job. Why do I do it? How do I want to do it? There are no wrong answers.
Perhaps enough for that.
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