Well-deserved kudos

Dealing with the complexities of life is not easy. There are very few occasions when a situation is indubitably good or bad, but in the big majority of instances judgements have to be necessarily more nuanced. It is also very common to give more weight to the arguments that favor our initial opinion than to those against it, which frequently leads to biased conclusions. This is the so-called confirmation bias. Being aware of it does not mean that you are immune to it, but there are methods to try to compensate for it. I try do this kind of analysis whenever I can afford the time and effort, which means I end up conceding positive points to ideas I disagree with or admitting negative aspects of my own beliefs.

Unavoidable subjects of our judgement are the interactions we conduct with other people on a daily basis. From our family members to our colleagues or even the strangers we cross in the street, we interact (or avoid interaction) with them and each case is eventually judged by us and becomes part of the big narrative of the day. This is the reason why, in a day when you have a dispute with your spouse and then get a growl from the baker, you end up in a foul mood for the rest of the day.

Photo: PxHere

With respect to the people we know, each interaction also contributes to the overall picture we slowly build on each one. First impressions can start the construction in one direction but they are not necessarily decisive: a frequent interaction will eventually overlay the initial impression resulting a more durable portrait of our relationship with them. An this point is important because each person is just one with the same behavior all the time: the relationship I have with colleague A might be different from the one that another colleague B has with A. It is true though that, witnessing the interactions between A and B, I might adjust my relationship with each one of them so that B's impression of A and my own are likely to converge over time. And of course, this impression is composed of both positive and negative aspect, activities which you would gladly share with them and others where they are not so reliable.

In the past, I have occasionally ranted against Martin because of his unjustified optimism in the development of our code. He expects the program to just run fine and is not used to providing useful insights as to where things have deviated from the plan. However, it is just a matter of justice to praise his hard work and his talent in finding the root cause of the errors once they happen. The last few months we have been working on a new version of the software where some of the deeper workings have been updated for safety, and although most things should not have changed it is unavoidable that some of the elements are affected and suddenly fall apart. Ten days ago he merged together all the code changes into a version of the software that seemed to work asked us to test it as thoroughly as we could. And in these ten days we have found six or seven errors that would have probably embarrassed us in front of the rest of the mission if they happened in flight, but every time Martin managed to find not only a solution, but also a clear explanation of why the error was happening and why it was not detected before.

For all the times that I have criticized him, let this one be one of high praise. He has managed to get the big majority of the software running, but with his hard work and insight he also keeps the team together. I know for a fact that some colleagues have stayed in the team because of the lessons and the excitement that they derive from working with Martin. In spite of the occasional disagreement, it is often a real pleasure to work together. Kudos to you, Martin. Have a nice evening.