Building Programs

In the 1993 movie Philadelphia, Tom Hanks portrays a homosexual lawyer Andrew Beckett in the 1980's Philadelphia. Beckett is doing valuable work for a law-firm, but fired when his managers learn he is gay after he develops first signs of AIDS.

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Beckett goes on to sue his ex-empoyer for discrimination and the main debate in the court-room is whether Beckett was a good lawyer (and therefore fired for illegal reasons) or bad lawyer rightfully fired for his incompetence. Pivotal moment is when Becketts defence attorney asks him in court why is he a good lawyer. Beckett answers: "Because I know the law and I love the law." 

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To be good in something is to know it - to have competence - and to love it - to have passion. Passion and competence create a positive spiral of achievement that leads to further passion, learning and ever higher competence.

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Software development, like practice of law, is vast and ever-changing area where no-one can be expert of everything. In software development life-long continuous learning is a given. Those of us who love that learning, that kick that comes from understanding a new technology that is ever more powerful or robust than previous ones, can say: I know software development and I love software development.

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Robert J. Brotherus