15 comments

[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 35.8 ms ] thread
Regardless of my own view on these ethics, the quality of SQLite is for me a testament to the usefulness of truthfully adhering to a (sub)set of noble precepts.
One could probably argue that, if interpreted in a certain way, most of these laws/rules could be good. Even the god praising could be seen positively if one subtly transforms "god" into something like "that which is good," as many secular philosophers have done.

However, this rule cannot be shown to be universally good, regardless of interpretation:

"Obey in all things the commands of those whom God has placed in authority over you, even though they (which God forbid) should act otherwise, mindful of the Lord's precept, 'Do what they say, but not what they do.'"

It’s just not logical or empirically coherent. We could deconstruct this stupidity extensively, but it would not fit within the margin of this thread.

"With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil — that takes religion."

― Steven Weinberg

After so many variations of “don’t be evil” (but when it suits us we’ll just let that go) - I’m indifferent to these kinds of ethics statements.

  52. Guard your tongue against evil and depraved speech.
  53. Do not love much talking.
  54. Speak no useless words or words that move to laughter.
  55. Do not love much or boisterous laughter.
No love for stand-up comics then, huh?
It's nice to see some humble people inside the tech space.

Too many of us believe we are gods as we command our machines to do our will. That was me once.

Yeah, it’s worth reminding people every so often that the guys who run SQLite are weirdos. Even if it is, hands down, the best product in its class.

And yes, it’s basically a paraphrase of the Rule of St Benedict.

(comment deleted)
Unexpected to see one of the most widely used databases grounding its ethics in a 1,500-year-old framework. The longevity angle is interesting.
Every now and then someone in software communities brings this up and while I hate christians but use sqlite regardless because it's not that big of a deal that it's maintainers are christians, I do find it weird how this rarely gets brought up when conversations about politics in software development are had.

Just weird to me that nobody seems to care about that one when people complain about other less political but more politicized identities fairly often

This gives me weird, cultish vibes. It has an uncomfortable US-American "forced-smileness" to it that I honestly find off-putting. But maybe I have been too much in a secular and non religious bubble the last few years and that made me hope that religion is finally leaving the science and IT space for good.