Crossing the road

When it comes to crossing the road, I’m just about as daredevil as the next person. I cross against the lights. I J-walk. You name it. Except when I see young children.

I approach an intersection looking both ways for oncoming traffic, about to cross against the lights when, out of the corner of my eye, I realise there are young children standing patiently for the lights to change.

It’s as if someone has erected an invisible wall. I stop dead in my tracks. I’m very thingy about it. I figure I’m old enough and ugly enough to know what I’m getting into but I don’t want to give these young kids a bad example. They’re not really old enough or experienced enough to know what’s safe or dangerous nor the neccessary motor skills even if they did. It’s almost like I feel a duty of care to towards them. I think as software developers we have similar resposibilities.

I consider myself to be a developer of average competence. I’ve been around the block a few times so I’ve made countless mistakes and, hopefully, learned from them. I’m pretty anal when it comes to certain things (as you’ve no doubt realised by now). But when I’m doing my own mini projects, sometimes I relax a little. Maybe I write some code that doesn’t have tests (howls from the crowd!). Maybe I hard-code a bunch of stuff I wouldn’t otherwise. The thing is I feel I’ve done enought to know when I can get away with it and when it’s just too darn important to overlook.

Sometimes mentoring and coaching can be like crossing the road. If I were by myself, I’d be quite happy to weave between the cars. But when there are kids around, maybe it’s better to sacrifice some speed for a little more safety?

As my good friend Damian Guy pointed out to me “that is why I like pairing. It is too easy to slacken off otherwise.”