Building Programs

Welcome,

In the 1993 movie Philadelphia, Tom Hanks portrays a homosexual lawyer Andrew Beckett in the 1980's Philadelphia. The movie is inspired by the true story of lives of attorneys Geoffrey Bowers and Clarence Cain. 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.

Beckett goes on to sue his ex-employer for discrimination and the main debate in the court-room is whether Beckett was a good lawyer (and therefore fired with illegal discrimination) or a bad lawyer (and therefore rightfully fired for his incompetence). Pivotal moment is when Beckett's defence attorney Joe Miller (played by Denzel Washington) questions Beckett in front of the jury about his skills as a lawyer:
Miller: "Are you a good lawyer, Andrew?"
Beckett: "I am an excellent lawyer."
Miller: "What makes you an excellent lawyer?"
Beckett: "I love the law. And I know the law."

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.

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 love software development and I know software development.

Robert J. Brotherus 2019