Just Do It (standard:non fiction, 597 words)
Author: PeterFromOZ	Added: Apr 02 2011	Views/Reads: 2920/2	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Just Do It - is a story about work and hypocrites.

Just Do It (No ‘Nike' pun intended) 

© 2000 Peter E. Williams 

“Well, just do-it anyway!” she said. 

“But we've got guidelines. Why did you do it that way?” I said. 

“Look, don't question it! The decision was made years ago and I'm not
changing the manual now.” 

“Stop shouting!” 

“I'm not shouting.” 

“You are.” 

“Well I'm sorry, but I'm just trying to be clear about this.” 

The final draft of the manual was a little inconsistent: some paragraphs
were numbered and others not. The guidelines clearly state that they 
should be numbered. 

“That's the way the sponsor wanted the manual, with those para numbers
removed. I'm sure it's on file somewhere, but I'm not going to look for 
it now. There's not enough time. The rules are just guidelines; they're 
more for classified manuals. We can use artist licence. Whatever it 
takes to make the book look good.” 

To me it wasn't about artistic licence; it was just plain hypocrisy, I'd
been hearing it all my life. Mainly from Those in some position of 
authority, or at least from someone who out-ranked me. She says there's 
a set of rules, so I apply it to check their work, as they asked, and 
they tell you they theirs is different. The rules don't apply to them. 
They call it artistic licence; to me it's just hypocrisy. One set of 
rules for you, and another for me. If I tried to use “artistic 
licence,” I be told to “please explain.” (no Pauline Hanson pun 
intended). 

**** 

You see, my background is, at least partially, as a computer programmer
- as a hobby. And in that game you really don't get much choice; if you 
don't follow the rules of syntax your program won't work. You have to 
stick to the rules or the computer doesn't know what you want it to do. 


Now I've written quite a lot of programs, with more or less with the
same tools, and I think I know how to do it well. I still need to be 
creative; I need to work out the algorithms that solve the problem at 
hand, in a way that the computer can understand. 

Let me add that I participate in discussion groups on the ‘net, about
the programming language that I use, and people there are always posing 
questions about how to do this or that, and quite often there are a 
half dozen or so different answers, from different people about how to 
do it. There are the simple approaches. The complex & 
a-little-bit-faster ones (don't you know it's GOTTA be as fast as it 
can!). And then there are the we-take-this-component-and-modify-it 
approach. And then there's also the 
we-can-rewrite-this-procedure-ourselves-with-a-new-algorithm approach. 
And there's lots more too. Usually there's an “official” (read 
textbook) way of doing things which almost always ends up being more 
involved than the easy was of doing it. In the end you just please 
yourself and pick one of them. 

It's never wrong; as long as it works, but then again someone else will
always be able to pick things about it that they could, or would, 
change - if only they had the time, the knowledge and of course your 
source code (read “what you wrote to generate the program from - the 
document that us humans can understand”). Of course some of those 
people will have the knowledge to “fix” it, but seldom the time. But 
sometimes there's one. 

But don't get me wrong, I think it's good fun to do. After all; it's my
hobby, and I can please myself.


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