I’ve made a conscious effort to stop apologizing for bugs in my code
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I’ve made a conscious effort to stop apologizing for bugs in my code
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Re: I’ve made a conscious effort to stop apologizing for bugs in my code
#2I agree about not apologizing for bugs.
But I disagree about it being something special to leaders.
And the way he says it, makes it sound like maybe he thinks leaders shouldn't apologize in general. Which I think is a fairly common belief that leaders use to justify not admitting they made a mistake. And is 100% different from not apologizing for bugs. Since as he points out, bugs are not mistakes, they are a normal part of development.
When the manager makes a significant mistake it's not like a bug, it's a poor judgement that probably affected everyone. And sometimes if it's a very negative affect then an apology is warranted. But at least, it's usually necessary to acknowledge when you had people going in the wrong direction.
Re: I’ve made a conscious effort to stop apologizing for bugs in my code
#3So sure, bugs happen, regardless of how good you are.
But there really are some people who constantly make mistakes, and those that rarely do.
There are people on my team where, when there is a bug, I just start looking at diffs of what they have committed because more likely than not, they caused the problem.
I think it's important to reinforce an attitude of trying to become better and people who give a shit when they make mistakes tend to also be the ones who make less of them.
Re: I’ve made a conscious effort to stop apologizing for bugs in my code
#4As a manager, I've always striven to apologize for my errors.
I do agree that errors are unavoidable and are bound to happen. That's why I actually never cared at all whether programmers apologize for bugs. Fixing bugs is also part of the software development process after all.
However, I've always believed an apology is important to show humility to my team mates. As a manager, I do not want to appear entitled. Of course, as soon as the error is uncovered, we should prioritize it and fix it. But I do not believe that proceeding to fixing an error is orthogonal to apologizing for it.
We are trying our best to build a company without a guilt culture. In such a position, is apologizing a bad move as a leader? What would you do?
Re: I’ve made a conscious effort to stop apologizing for bugs in my code
#5Maybe don’t apologise for it, but I definitely think it’s useful to acknowledge if it was your code as it removes an awkwardness around it. Obviously this doesn’t have to be done for every little bug but if there’s a discussion around one then owning it can help.
Re: I’ve made a conscious effort to stop apologizing for bugs in my code
#6So sure, bugs happen, regardless of how good you are. But there really are some people who constantly make mistakes, and those that rarely do. There are people on my team where, when there is a bug, I just start looking at diffs of what they have committed because more likely than not, they caused the problem. I think it's important to reinforce an attitude of trying to become better and people who give a shit when t…
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Re: I’ve made a conscious effort to stop apologizing for bugs in my code
#7I agree about not apologizing for bugs. But I disagree about it being something special to leaders. And the way he says it, makes it sound like maybe he thinks leaders shouldn't apologize in general. Which I think is a fairly common belief that leaders use to justify not admitting they made a mistake. And is 100% different from not apologizing for bugs. Since as he points out, bugs are not mistakes, they are a normal…
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Re: I’ve made a conscious effort to stop apologizing for bugs in my code
#8He says that this is a fallacy:
> It reinforces the idea that any one person or piece of code can be blamed for a given failure.
Why is that a fallacy?
Re: I’ve made a conscious effort to stop apologizing for bugs in my code
#9Would you be ok with your dentist being OK with her slip-ups?
“I really should have checked the x-ray better before I extracted your front tooth. But you know, I’m not sorry. It was an external constraint — there was a queue of patients waiting”.
I can’t believe how low we let this profession sink. I hope in 15 years we will look at thies era like we look at the Wild West today. Exciting from a distance but nobody would really like to live like that.
Re: I’ve made a conscious effort to stop apologizing for bugs in my code
#10Would you be ok with your dentist being OK with her slip-ups? “I really should have checked the x-ray better before I extracted your front tooth. But you know, I’m not sorry. It was an external constraint — there was a queue of patients waiting”. I can’t believe how low we let this profession sink. I hope in 15 years we will look at thies era like we look at the Wild West today. Exciting from a distance but nobody wo…
This comparison is like comparing apples to oranges.
I believe we need to get the "context" before judging any situation.