Balancing Output and Justice

I struggle with balancing timely output (software tickets completed, writing, course development) and justice.

In this context, justice is:

  1. Ensuring that my work is undoubtedly correct (depending on the task, this is fluid)
  2. Ensuring that my work is grounded in clarity
  3. Ensuring that my work honors the human consumers with empathy
  4. Ensuring that my work has a solid mental model and my ideas are valid
  5. Ensuring that my work provides some benefit to consumers
  6. Ensuring that my work moves the needle forward, however so.

I see the process of creation to be a moral act, not a productive one. I create writings, code, and systems to uplift and benefit others. Despite my limited clarity and the other painful human traits, I want to provide a service to others rooted in clarity and justice.

The greatest pain I feel is that my work will never be fully rooted in clarity and justice, no matter how many hours I offer. I firmly believe that all people deserve only clarity, justice, and the highest good, and to fall short is to fail at creation.

No matter how much time I spend, I will always fall short of the clarity and justice that souls deserve.

When people consume your writings, your ideas permeate for a while (even implicitly).

When people consume your code, your design and assumptions shape their own work.

When people consume your systems, your design subtly establishes a mental model.

Your output influences people both directly and subtly, like a whispering undercurrent. A human is a soul that inherently deserves clarity and justice. If you recognize both your impact and what the human soul deserves, it is a moral failure for your work to fall short. To fail is to risk impacting another human soul.

Every action that touches another human soul is a moral act. But, the unfortunate reality is this:

Sometimes output created with good intentions, rooted in clarity and justice, will fall short anyways. Work containing errors can taint another soul. That is the greatest pain that tears at me.

But, what's the alternative? Knowing this, the only alternative is to not act at all, to not create at all. I firmly refuse this alternative.

This world we live in is drowning in suffering, pain, and injustice. If you truly recognize the scale of harm around you, to not act is to be complicit. To not act is to abandon your fellow humans and accept harm. In doing so, you fail humanity. The price of clarity is painful and overwhelming.

I struggle, every day, to find balance between just output and timeliness. As a flawed human, I hope that one day I will learn to forgive myself. Until then, I will do what I can: offer as much clarity and care as I am able each day.

I do not expect it will ever feel like enough, but that is simply the fate of imperfection.