Comments on: There’s Nothing Courageous About Being Honest About Mistakes

By: kurt schroeder

kurt schroeder — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 21:23:13 +0000

I did learn that lesson a long time ago and continue to be just honest about my mistakes. The same is true about not knowing something. The sooner I admit I don’t know something, the sooner that situation changes.
My initial real mistake happened in the mid 1980’s at my first job developing medical recording systems for the IBM system 34 in RPG/II. They used disk packs which are magazines loaded with around 5 8” diskettes. Early in the morning I decided to backup the current version before I attempted my first, albeit, minor, change current version changes. I walked to the 34, plugged in the pack and pressed load button, confidently located next to where the pack was inserted. Well, the “load” button is actually the same as pressing the reset on a modern server. Developers, lost about 2 hours work each. Power failures had happened and it did cross my mind to just let everyone make up their own mind about what had happened. Instead I decided to tell them what happened. We all had a good laugh about it, and we moved on.
This initial pattern, admitting things, has served me well for most of my career. There was a glaring exception and it is the only exception. Like the environment you noted my superiors and co-workers at my last corporate job made a habit of blaming or just hiding things. Every other time I ran into this culture I’ve discovered staying true to honesty, and not making a point of the dishonesty of others, not only made me feel ok, it had the effect of encouraging the same. This time was different and another important lesson if a somewhat late one. One of my superiors was a very talented, but troubled individual. He really did not want me there and made a point of using every opportunity, including my confessed short comings, to see me go. The lessons here: Don’t assume others will understand your actions and sometimes the only real answer to a bad situation is “Good Bye”.
KES

By: Antonio Jr

Antonio Jr — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 12:15:05 +0000

Davy,

Nice post.

As my mon used to advise us: “Lies have small legs”. One day someone will find the truth and you´ll be in hot water. So, just follow my mon´s advice and you´ll be good.

By: Nima

Nima — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 10:08:39 +0000

Although I agree with you that one should not hide his/her mistakes and be responsible for them specially where there can be severe consequences but It doesn’t mean that your colleagues and superiors should act cool when they find out what you’ve done.I mean we should take responsibility for our mistakes whether other people support us or not .

By: Davy Brion

Davy Brion — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 13:07:34 +0000

“It’s only by doing, and inevitably making mistakes but admitting and accepting them, you really learn and build up expierence.”

exactly, mistakes are only a problem if you don’t learn from them

By: Luc

Luc — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 13:04:17 +0000

Davy,

I can only agree with that. It’s only by doing, and inevitably making mistakes but admitting and accepting them, you really learn and build up expierence.
That being said, I took a look at your 4 “example mistakes”, and commented on the Active Directory problem

By: Bjarte

Bjarte — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 07:59:43 +0000

Great post. I like reading these non-technical posts related to software development.

I hope not many people work in a company where you cannot tell the truth. If so, it’s time to look for another job