In defence of defence of Software Craftsmanship and Uncle Bob

I hope some water has gone under the bridge after the “Google memo gate” followed by the “Uncle Bob is a misogynist gate”, so let’s discuss it again. During a few days, I feel almost uncomfortable to read Twitter. I read many anger reactions, many accusations and a few smart comments. I’d like to share my feelings in this post, because I believe I’m not the only one to feel bad about this thread.

In defence of software craftsmanship

I’d like to thank Daniel Irvine to have written a good post to defend software craftsmanship. I won’t rephrase here what he already said, but I would like to testify as a software craftsman. I came to this community explicitly because I was not looking only for technical excellence. And I think it is the case for most crafts(wo)men I know. It is an open minded and friendly community.
I feel that even more due to recent events, because at every new attacks in Paris, London, Barcelona or Turku, I can think to crafts(wo)men living here, and I hope nothing bad has happened to them. If I care about them it’s because I know we share some values and principles. Not only the quest for technical excellence, but also a deep respect for people, a willing to improve the things around them and to share their passion. I feel connected to them.

The software craftsmanship community is by far the place where I’ve met the more activists. They talk a lot about ethics, politics, environment, and of course diversity. I can’t remember a single SoCraTes I attended where several of these topics were not discuss. And it is important to me, because I know I must improve about them. Of course, it is not perfect, it is often the same people who talk about these topics. But please don’t assume that other people don’t talk about that because they are not interested. They don’t talk about that because like me, they are often part of a favourited majority, and don’t feel legitimate to discuss such topics. I know it’s wrong, I don’t try to justify it, I just try to explain how I feel, and why I need to change.
As a software craftsman, I would like to testify that this community is certainly not a bunch of old white men who care about TDD. To be honest, this is the community where I see the most diversity, in terms of country, sex, religion, and skin colours. I agree it is still not enough. But it is unfair to say that this community only care about technical stuff.

In defence of Uncle Bob

But I think we missed a post to defend Uncle Bob as well. I’d like to thank him for the many good, talks, books and blog articles he has written. He was the one who enlights the passion in me with Clean Code.
Of course, he has done some bad stuff as well (but who doesn’t?), and I don’t agree with every word he says. For instance, I don’t believe working 70 hours per week is mandatory to be a good software engineer. And no need to say I don’t believe that you should not fire someone who has toxic ideas.
But his point was more subtle: “Don’t fire someone just because you disagree with him”. I think his example and context was bad, but it raises a fundamental question: how do we differentiate toxic ideas and ideas we disagree with?  It’s a fair question because if we don’t agree with toxic ideas, aren’t we tempted to label as “toxic” any idea we might not like? How do we react with people who label agility, scrum, XP or craftsmanship as toxic?

I don’t have the answers, but my point is that the community has overreacted. Yes, the example was poor, yes, the context was bad. But instead of asking for explanations (that he writes here), and discussing the core question (how do we differentiate toxic ideas and ideas we disagree with?), there was lots of anger and unrational discussions about since when and how much Bob is a misogynist, and if we should refuse him to speak in conferences. Aren’t we open-minded? Aren’t we here to help each other? Uncle Bob is a master of technical stuff, but he says that he needs to improve on the topic of diversity. Like me, and like many other average white men in the industry.
The solution is not to ignore him and label his speech as “toxic”. The solution is to discuss, argue and teach, because we are all smart software engineers who share values and principles, including the willing to improve, and not only technically.

As a software craftsman, I would like to testify that this community is very open minded, and that it can help people to improve, even Uncle Bob.