On Codes of Conduct

Published on Dec 13, 2019 (updated Jul 1, 2023), filed under politics, misc. (Share this post, e.g. on Mastodon or on Bluesky.)

This post was once called “No Codes of Conduct.” In it I shared the idea that “our individual values and [personal] initiative, our social norms, and our legal systems” should be “sufficient to govern our conduct,” so that we “treat each other respectfully.”

When we treated each other respectfully, I suggested, we would not need codes of conduct. The ideal world that I painted consisted of people who care about another; who care about each other much more than simply not to harass or infringe on anyone.

Some readers misconstrued the idea. They read absurd statements in it, they made grotesque interpretations: They took wishing for a world in which we treat each other well for desiring a world in which people, especially women, could be harassed with impunity. They missed the aggressiveness of their insinuation, they missed the obvious contradiction—that if we all treat each other well, we do not treat each other poorly (as with harassing anyone). They missed that once we all treat each other well, we do not need codes that say we should not treat each other poorly.

After the responses had confused and hurt me so much that I turned defensive and unpublished the original, this post is here to maintain the original idea: the idea, the wish, the vision of us treating each other well.

About Me

I’m Jens (long: Jens Oliver Meiert), and I’m an engineering lead, guerrilla philosopher, and indie publisher. I’ve worked as a technical lead and engineering manager for companies you use every day (like Google) and companies you’ve never heard of, I’m an occasional contributor to web standards (like HTML, CSS, WCAG), and I write and review books for O’Reilly and Frontend Dogma.

I love trying things, not only in web development and engineering management, but also with respect to politics and philosophy. Here on meiert.com I talk about some of my experiences and perspectives. (Please share feedback: Interpret charitably, but do be critical.)