Coding is political

MP 121: It always has been, and it sure is now.

I was going to write about how much I like third-party ecosystems such as PyPI this week, and what you should know about them. But writing generically about software development at this moment feels like burying my head deep in the sand, and pretending the world hasn't changed significantly for so many people. My thoughts on the benefits of third-party libraries can wait another week.

Coding is political, whether we want to acknowledge it or not. Coding is often synonymous with automation. We automate things that make people's lives better, and we automate things that make people's lives worse. Some of the best programming experiences in my life have centered around automating a tedious process that made my life easier, lighter, and more enjoyable. At the same time, how many of us have tried to contact customer service about something critical only to find ourselves in a loop that never leads anywhere helpful? That's a minor example of a coded support process that makes life more difficult, and in some cases actually kills people. ¹ Everything is political in some ways.

This is a US-centric post, but the US has influence beyond its borders. We're heading into a period of deregulation, and erosion of public institutions. All my life I've been able to take for granted that institutions like NOAA, NWS, USGS, and FEMA will be at least reasonably funded. We're looking for a house right now, and I'm planning to find the two nearest weather stations to run some data analysis. I want to figure out if one side of town would be more appealing than the other side. I need accurate, local data to do that analysis. Now those institutions, some of which I've relied on all my life, are headed for defunding and dismantling. I'm pretty sure weather stations are going to break and go unrepaired because of defunding and instability. They won't all break, and many that do will be repaired. But I have so much less confidence in the system as a whole now than I did yesterday. And it's not really about my housing search, it's about monitoring, preparing for, and responding to extreme weather events.

Public education is under attack. "States rights" in the administration of public education is almost exclusively about restricting access to quality education, it's rarely about expanding access. We can expect more focus on religion, and more restriction on progressive ideas, well-established science and history, and literature. And the increased focus on religion will focus on the Americanized version of Christianity, not the kind that builds understanding across belief systems.

So what is there to do? I'm taking the day to reflect quietly, and just try to be kind to everyone I encounter who isn't gloating or shouting in my face. As far as programming goes, here are a few of my guiding principles:

Build open tools

I'm doubling down on projects like the landslide monitoring tool I worked on in Alaska, which gives people real-time information about extreme weather events. When I talk about the long-term stability of federal institutions, I say that from the experience of depending on those agencies to be able to carry out work like this.

I'm going all-in on django-simple-deploy, which lets people more easily share the tools they build. Democracy is being undermined, but tools that democratize access to power are critical. The ability to deploy a web app means if you have an idea for how to make people's lives better, you can share it with others more easily.

Don't help build tools that explicitly oppress others

Some of us will be asked (or told) to build tools that are explicitly used to exclude and harm others. I'm in the privileged position, for now, of being unlikely to face this directly myself. If it happens to you, refuse whenever and wherever you can.

I don't claim this is an easy choice. It's not always easy to know exactly how what we're working on will be used, and it's not easy to face job loss and punitive threats.

Share information

Education will continue to be undermined in the US and many areas for the foreseeable future. I'm continuing to share what I know, and answer questions when and where I can. I encourage you to do the same.

Do joyful things

Life can't be all work. We need to do things that bring us peace and joy. I will continue to hold my family close, to run and bike and climb mountains, and all the things that have always made me feel good to be alive. I hope you can find time and space to do those things yourself as well.

If you think this is an exaggeration, consider people trying to schedule critical, timely medical care. Or consider people trying to get their insurance to approve such a procedure, and they can't get through to anyone who can reevaluate an automated rejection.

What we might be tempted to call a frustrating experience does, in fact, end up killing people.