Why the force should not always be with you

Not to mention sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, water treatment and universal health insurance: What, I ask you, have the Romans ever done for us?

This is a very striking example of hostility to innovation. But beware, it's not always so obvious. The following example shows this.

Beware of the power of habit

In the middle of the twentieth century, the biologist Gordon R. Stephenson carried out an astonishing experiment: He locked rhesus monkeys in a cage with a banana in the centre. Each time the monkey approached the banana, he shot a painful jet of air at the animal. The monkeys quickly realised that it was wise to let the banana be a banana. Some time later, he sent another rhesus monkey into the enclosure. Naturally, the banana immediately aroused the newcomer's interest. As he approached the tasty object of desire, something extraordinary happened: the cell mate, who had previously been maltreated with compressed air, panicked. Eyes wide with horror, he threatened the other. He was told to stay away from the fruit! The animal, which had never had to feel the punishment first hand, abandoned its plan. Even after the first monkey had been removed, the blameless rhesus monkey did not dare to take the banana.

Like the involuntary helpers in this experiment, we humans often find it difficult to question the status quo and the prevailing mores. How nice would it be if we could pick up and devour the banana without prejudice?

The first point of our manifesto is therefore: Appreciate variation

We don't want to blindly approve of change, but we don't want to demonise it in advance either. Openness should guide our actions. If we have difficulties working on the framework or processes, we don't want to simply accept this, but actively question whether the processes and framework can be improved. We should be aware that nothing is set in stone. It is not only permitted, but highly encouraged that people think along with us and make suggestions for improvement where they recognise potential. That's why we have the Engineering Board and the Architecture Guild, for example.

Learning means change, knowledge is power, and we gain knowledge through learning: We want to learn and when we receive criticism of our code - nobody is perfect - be grateful for the chance to become an even better developer. Code reviews should therefore not make us uncomfortable. Other opinions and perspectives can always add value.

New tools can also bring us considerable benefits, although we have to get used to them first. For example, it was an indescribable moment for me when I was recently able to restore a Git commit (there really were a lot of changes) that had been lost - with SVN this would have been impossible.

Here are a few suggestions

• I am open to code reviews and criticism of my code .- I am open to decisions from guilds .- I make my own suggestions to eliminate disruptive circumstances
• I approach challenges step by step and am not deterred by their size
• I allow other opinions and value them.
• I am open to new methods and tools and try them out too.
• I question whether a problem should be solved at all or whether the solution approach improves the situation.
• I am not afraid to change my mind about a topic afterwards if I realise that I was wrong.
• Bertolt Brecht: He who says A does not have to say B. He can also recognise that A was wrong.

At the end

Could it be that some of you have not read this text critically enough? If you want to find out more, you should read here or there. And what is true? It is not easy to find the correct information in a flood of information. The quality of the information is often hardly taken into account by the reader.

Conclusion: **Thinking for yourself makes you smart!## Our manifesto convinces youOr are you not convinced and want to develop it further? We have the following vacancies in software development:- Junior software developer job advert- Job advertisement software developer- Job advertisement senior software developer