Honestly, we should give up hope

Posted by Jedd on 2019-10-26

It's unavoidable -- you're bound to pick up a wealth of habits, including some bad ones, from people you meet along the way.

Some of the more standard, but nonetheless robust examples include:

  • as quickly as possible in life, buy a king size bed

  • use singular terms consistently for SQL table and column names

  • avoid saying 'please join us' as it implies there's an us the person is currently excluded from

  • don't use margarine

  • never eat at a restaurant with a neon sign

The same person who explained the benefits of consistency for SQL (though sadly they've now wandered off their own path there) also explained why they didn't trust anyone that started a sentence with 'Honestly, ...'.

The intent may be to emphasise candour ... but implicitly? Most of the time they're being dishonest.

And that's not a message that you want to send. Especially in a professional environment.

I want to assume you're being honest with me all the time. And the golden rule means I should be setting that as my own personal standard, of course.

People that tell me they hope something will be done by Friday are exhibiting a touch too much mysticism for my liking.

Should kind of comes under the same umbrella -- it suggests things are out of our control. It's not that things aren't out of our control, but rather that this is an understood fact by all concerned parties, so let's proceed on the assumption things will work out as planned.

And if they don't .... well then we repair / apologise / run away.

Oh, and people who start paragraphs with 'This!' are total cocks. But that goes without saying.