A Lesson In Humility

Last week I made a fool of myself. Here's what happened. I've been collaborating on a project with someone for a little while now. I say collaborating not because I'm actively participating in the project, but rather because I created the first version and, lack of time, someone else was brought in to come work on the second version. This is where things started getting ugly.

I can sometimes be an arrogant prick. I'm very proud of what I do (which is a good thing), but sometimes pride can become arrogance (which isn't such a good thing). I know I don't have all the answers, and I am open to suggestions and comments. I've learned alot from the community and plan to keep learning. However, when faced with someone with less, experience, I tend to be a little more stubborn with my ideas. OK, scratch little.

Anyways, I know most of you aren't here for all the details, and haven't signed on to read the script of an overly eventful soap opera, so I'll get right to the meat of it. Last week, I initiated a conversation about a critical design decision for the project. Emphasis on the initiated (i.e. "I started it"). This turned into a heated argument with, in hindsight, good arguments on both sides. In my stubbornness, I dismissed his proposal and refused to step down from my solution. Several e-mails were exchanged, alot of time was wasted just going back and forth, reading and writing e-mails, arguing. Remember that I wasn't working on this project because I didn't have time for it. I was busy over my head, but I had to keep going back to my e-mails and respond, and argue, and respond again. All this because this other programmer had a valid idea and was defending it too. However, back then I didn't realize this. I started feeling frustrated. I couldn't get any work done, and I couldn't get the other guy to back down. Obviously, I was well brought up, so I didn't vent directly to him. I did what anyone would do: I vented my frustration to the public eye.

What? You wouldn't do that? Yeah, I guess you're right. A week after my blunder on Twitter (hey, whaddaya know, that rhymes!) I've come to my senses. Some of you might've seen it, some of you didn't. The important thing though is that I was wrong to express my frustration about Mr. Duffus (<- I use it here only for reference, and not as a judge of the person's character! You've been warned!) in a public forum. Name calling is also very low, and even though I didn't mean to insult (it was only venting), it could've (and might've) been interpreted the wrong way, and understandably.

What I'm trying to say, basically, is that I'm sorry. I'm sorry for the community. You didn't, and shouldn't, have to be a part of this. I'm especially sorry for the comments I made towards Mr. Duffus. Don't worry, I've had a normal, real live conversation with him and I hope that this situation is behind us (we even ended up going with his solution). Hopefully this will serve as a reminder of my lesson in humility.

Class dismissed.