Lessons from Confucius for Software Development

In my previous post, I talked about lessons from Confucius that I think are still useful in the modern world, but there is a field of endeavour that I think can particularly benefit from understanding the Confucian worldview: software development.

At first glance, it seems highly unlikely that Confucianism might have some application to software development. The Confucian values of respect for the past, harmonious social relations, decorum and moral leadership don’t have an obvious affinity for an industry that is known for its focus on what is new and shiny, and which is stereotypically populated by raging individualists with a disregard for social standards.

But it is worth considering that the Confucians represent one of the earliest groups of knowledge workers in human history. They were trained in specialized knowledge for specialized tasks in a complex society, and they had a sense that their specialized knowledge made them an elite group in society.

An important concept in Confucian texts that bears on this is junzi. Etymologically, it means “ruler’s son, prince”, but already in Confucius’ time it is used more metaphorically, often translated into English as “superior man”, “gentleman”. The Yiddish term “mensch” has a similar ring. It represents what every Confucian was striving to be.

In spite of its etymology, junzi is one of the earliest-known notions of elite status that is not derived from the happenstance of one’s birth, such as being the literal son of a ruler, or a free man of Athens. The kind of “superior man” we are talking about here is defined entirely by his knowledge and skills, and his savoir faire in using them. Confucianism is a truly meritocratic system of thought, and a modern IT specialist can easily relate to such an ethic.

A second consideration is the fundamentally social nature of software development. If it ever truly existed, the age of the lone genius changing the world with his software is over. Any non-trivial software development these days involves a whole team of people with different specialties and knowledge, and building reliable and maintainable applications requires that these people work together as an effective and harmonious community.

The Confucian junzi has a sense of noblesse oblige, a sense that the status conferred on him by his knowledge and skills requires that he use them for the betterment of his society and to achieve collective goals. He is willing to lead and mentor new members of the fraternity of knowledge workers, and does this not by pontificating, but by providing an example through good practices.

The very fact that these kind of values are not what most of us think of when we consider software development suggests that there is still much benefit and advantage to be gained by nurturing them in software teams, and a team lead could do worse than to study the Analects of Confucius to prepare for the challenges they face.

After all, Confucius and his followers have several centuries of experience organizing and training knowledge workers to draw on.