Weekly Journal : Essays

There are few things wholly evil or wholly good. Almost everything is an inseparable compound of the two, so that our best judgment of the preponderance between them is continually demanded. — Abraham Lincoln

Submitting Your Work

Push a Markdown formatted plain text file, named week02_ethics.md, to the individual portfolio_NETID repository provided for you in the course's Gitlab group.

Specification

Ethical Essay

Ethical dilemmas are situations in which one must make a moral decision about what to do (e.g., right vs. right/wrong, good vs. good/bad, a moral judgment about a person/event/concept), but the right choice can be unclear or complicated because of the costs involved. Moreover, personal responses to ethical dilemmas may well be internalized (e.g., personal ethics code, moral training at home, religious beliefs, etc.), making it hard to articulate why you believe something is correct or not. Very unlike typical right or wrong problems given by algorithms in your CompSci classes!

However, as technology, computers, algorithms, and software are embedded into more aspects of life, there seem to be more questions than answers. What is your view of ethics in CompSci?

• Provide an example of how computing technology has directly helped you or someone you know. Be as specific as possible.
• Provide an example of how computing technology has directly harmed you or someone you know. Be as specific as possible (it can be the same technology in your previous answer but, presumably, a different scenario).
• Describe an ethical dilemma a programmer might encounter when developing large, complex, software.
• Do you think computing technology is generally positive or negative for most people or society as a whole? Why or why not.

After answering the questions above, read this article and respond to it from the perspective of what you can personally do to learn more about ethics in CompSci.

Learning from Failure Essay

Mistakes are inevitable, especially when attempting something you have never done before. However, especially in a school setting, they should not be painful experiences but, instead, opportunities for learning and improving. In fact, many experts suggest keeping a personal Failure Journal to help you see patterns in your mistakes. With every experience comes the choice to retreat or grow and change. Indeed, in this course, you will be judged less for your mistakes than how you respond to and improve from them.

Consider the following quotes about failure:

• Failure is important
• Failure is an event, not a person
• Fail often in order to succeed sooner
• Failing is easy; trying again takes courage
• We learn from failure, not from success

Choose one as a starting point to reflect on an unsuccessful academic experience and how you ultimately benefited from it (whether or not it seemed painful at the time).