Knowing What You’re Asking For
As I grow older, I’m convinced that some degree of wisdom is just knowing when something doesn’t make sense– a growth of the common-sense muscle that you were born with.
This is especially helpful in the programming world because you’re constantly being asked to quote how long something will take, and rarely have you ever done that thing before. Add to it the fact that the person asking you usually wants it done sooner than later, and you find that you have the perfect recipe for disaster.
This is why, when you lead any group of people in a programming task, you need to know whether you’re just being told something or whether it’s something legitimate. How long should an item take?
Just like the quote, if someone asked me to connect a database using CSS, I’d laugh at them. It must be a joke– there’s no reason to do this, even if you could.
The same thing is true when it comes to looking at the claims of the Bible. God shows us, in his word things about ourselves, where we came from, what our purpose is and why bad things happen. It models reality in a way that no other man-made religion could, and it makes sense.
That doesn’t mean that miracles are easy to believe, or that someone wouldn’t want to see something more direct, but it makes a whole lot more sense to see the world around us as a fallen thing that was designed than something that came about because of the roll of a dice. It’s gotten to the point that even Atheist/Agnostics are now floating the idea of living in a simulation, which sounds a lot like other theories about the world being not unlike an advanced video game.
Having common sense and knowing what makes sense helps you sniff out what sounds true. That doesn’t mean it’s always right, or that it can’t be mislead, but it’s a useful tool to develop!
