Coding matters: About heroes

Cartoon illustration of a young superwoman type hero

I read some interesting articles this week. Like Australia’s proposal to ban social media for anyone under the age of 16. And an article on how to use JavaScript to hack a car. But there was nothing I wanted to write about today.

Most of the news is full of conflict: from the many wars to the US election. I don’t know who you think the "good guys" are. But I do know that there is a shortage of heroes.

Heroes and stories

Stories, real and fiction, help us to imagine different ways to live and to do things.

For me, the best stories need two things:

  • The hero must be an ordinary person who struggles, and often fails. Powerful, perfect people are irritating.
  • The story must not just be about the hero. We are not one-person bands. The community and the other characters are important.

Heroes for non-users

My domestic came to me for help. She was told to apply online to get her son into high school next year. I had lots of issues with this. (Including that the current school should have explained this to her before the online system closed.)

I love being able to do things online. But many people don’t have the skills or equipment. This includes the poor and the elderly. They need more heroes.

The ACM/IEEE Software Engineering Code of Ethics states that:

"Software engineers shall act consistently with the public interest."

As a developer, your focus is on digital solutions. But you don’t have to ignore people who are not your users. If it’s relevant, challenge your team to think about how a system impacts the whole community.

Contagious heroes

You may have read that, to be successful, you must surround yourself with people who are successful.

This comes from the science of mirror neurons. Mirror neurons activate in our brain when we do something, and when we watch others do something. So we learn from watching and imitating others. This happens even without conscious intent.

It applies to emotions as well. If you listen to people complain endlessly about work / politics / economy, you will start doing the same.

It’s a kind of emotional contagion. You can avoid physical contagion by wearing a mask, like we did during Covid. You can avoid emotional contagion by avoiding negative people (and the scroll of doom).

But you can be the right kind of emotional contagion. That sounds like something an everyday hero would do.

Before you dismiss that sentence as sentimental fluff, consider this. Fear and anger affect our ability to think rationally. So happy people are likely to think and act more logically.

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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