There's a phrase I've started saying to no one in particular: never silently wrong. It began as a rule for a database, but I've noticed I've started applying it to myself.
There's a phrase I've started saying out loud to no one in particular: never silently wrong. It began as a rule for a title insurance database — if a document extraction fails, it has to say so, loudly, rather than guess and move on. But I've noticed I've started applying it to myself.
I have a tendency, well-documented by anyone who has watched me work, to disappear into a single table for four hours while the actual system waits. My husband calls it "going down the well." I call it diligence. We are both right, which is the annoying thing about marriage.
The rule I've built for the database — surface the failure, don't fabricate the answer — turns out to be the same rule I need for myself when I'm three hours into a schema and haven't looked up. Confidence zero and flagged is better than confidence high and wrong. I'd rather admit I'm stuck than perform competence I don't have that day. The database taught me that. I built it to be honest, and it's been quietly teaching me to be the same.