Courage Aggressiveness And Fearlessness

Courage, Aggressiveness and Fearlessness are all the same - or are they? Of course not --- why would you ever think they were?

Aggressiveness:

: You are waiting in line, and I push in front of you.

Courage:

: You stand up to me by pointing out my rudeness.

Fearlessness:

: You point out my rudeness by comparing me unfavorably to slime mold, even though I outweigh you by 50 pounds.

Courage:

: I agree that you have a valid grievance, and I apologize and go to the end of the line.

Aggressiveness:

: You persist in your slime mold analogy.

Courage:

: The person behind you in line suggests that the incident is over, and that we all need to go on from here.

Fearlessness:

: The person behind you in line is a child.

I have goosebumps just from reading this (seriously).

Courage and fearlessness are incompatible -- you can not have both at the same time. Fearlessness is a common state, where one feels that there is truly little or nothing to fear. A tightrope walker practicing above a net can afford to be fearless: a fall is merely an inconvenience. Courage is a resolution to do something in spite of fear, so it cannot be coupled with fearlessness. The same tightrope walker performing without a net is displaying courage: knowing that a fall could be fatal, the walker goes out anyways.

There are different forms of fearlessness:

Where you are oblivious to the risks
Where you are aware of the risks but simply ignore them. (is this fearlessness or unfounded courage?)
Where you are aware of the risks, but have controlled them.
Where there are no risks

The 3rd and 4th (if it ever happens) situations are good places to be - e.g. Being fearless in your refactoring because you know that the tests will catch any mistakes.

The first 2 seem reminiscent of CowboyCoding.

(By the way, watch out for big time AmericanCulturalAssumption coming up...)

It is hard to talk about courage without internally invoking images of Superman, the Lone Ranger, John Wayne, etc. This is because we associate courage with the positive characteristics of such heroic figures. The word "courage" brings some baggage along with it.

In much the same way the word "aggressiveness" carries certain negative connotations in most circumstances. In approaching solutions, however, sometimes this aggression is exactly what is called for to break over the barrier of fear to use a new technology or whatever.

"Fearlessness" has no such vibe attached to it because it is not a word we use very much. However, I would like to see the idea of fearlessness promoted in development circles because it would stimulate free thinking and more radical solutions. How can we expand the discussion of fearlessness in design and development? Tests can only be one small aspect of this. Should we start a new page?

Our chief weapon is Courage -- Courage and Aggressiveness. That's two, our two chief weapons are Courage and Aggressiveness. And Fearlessness. That is, our three chief weapons are Courage, Aggressiveness, and Fearlessness. And an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope. Er... amongst our weaponry are...

Comfy Chair!

If you saw some AtmosphericPhenomena? observed by NASA, JPL, SETI etc. and the PowersThatBe s response was to caricature you in their MovieIndustry? instead of discussing it, they might be concerned if you discuss it with the development of the InterNet. If they had been following some NegativePatterns? prior to this then, depicting your SocialNetwork offensively you might be reticent to go to LawEngforcement? if they responded inappropriately when you when to them leading up to the latest FilmPosters?. Demise of certain of them dur to:

  dementia -> pill_forgetting -> NursingHome? -> person coughing violently -> pneumonia -> death

You could hope the pentagon might have put thim in the WitnessProtection? program seeing they were paying other neighbors for WrongfulInjury? of freinds that joined the military. Your brother used to play dead as children, it might be a precedent since you verifiably are seeing LightBeams? dim on and off by BeingJohnMalchovich? technology by your own beau. She might have opted in to see what her husband was up to behind closed doors. To elaborate the process so the people that set it up could bring it to light would be bad form. If it presents a new AnschlussAns? or Alteration, patience and timing might dictate when to create your own PaperTrail? ...

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