For various reasons, I’m re-reading this post, from six very long years ago. This part, in particular, has me in that “am I laughing or crying” zone:
The idea of codes and oaths, and the idea of good being unbreakably linked to excellence is an interesting idea; that you cannot parse them individually. A good surgeon is a surgeon who does not remove the wrong organs. To then take this goodness and link to ethics, though, I wonder? Can you be ethical if you’re bad at it? Well, can’t you be ethical, but incompetent? To have the good intent, but the bad skill?
Oh. Oh the fucking painful irony.
In a related story, I’m a personal finance journalist whose personal finances are a mess. But I am ethical.