Why every profession needs a Hippocratic OathPublished inThe Medium BlogSent as aNewsletter3 min readJust now--Only 45 more Thursdays to go in 2025Issue #267: the past is in front of you, spiteful biology, and 80 years of symbolismBy Harris SockelI featured this story briefly in Tuesdays issue but it didnt quite get the airtime it deserves, so Im mentioning it up here: Attila Vgs Hippocratic Oath for software designers.One of my engineering managers years ago had a famous motto, he remembers, its just code, not heart surgery. (Ive heard this, too sub in anything for code as a way to put your work in perspective.) But as Vgs career progressed, he started to question the maxim. Sometimes code is life or death? Lets not even start with the obvious ones like writing software for medical robots, he explains, 95.9% of all webpages out there fail to meet accessibility guidelines meaning people with disabilities cant even use them. Software determines much of how we think and act. Its reasonable to profess, at the very least, to do no harm when building a new app or feature.So, Vg created his own Oath for developers. He pledges to remember that there is art to software engineering as well as science and to not write code just for fun, [or] for business success, but for humansTurns out hes not the only one whos written an oath for their tech job. Nick Hodges wrote an Hippocratic Oath for developers in 2020 (Ill be teachable) and Xian Gu proposed a designers Oath in 2023 (focus on long-term wellness). Heres another designers creed, written by the founder of a branding studio in Chicago. I like this line: I will apply, for the benefit of culture, all measures which are required, avoiding those twin traps of awards and self-congratulation.Quick aside: Fifth-century Greek doctor Hippocrates is typically credited with writing the classic Oath (some med students recite a modernized version at graduation) but theres little evidence he wrote it himself. Some scholars think a group of physicians came up with it collectively. I like that ideait was a way for a group of people to keep themselves accountable to each other.Its not a bad idea to design an oath for whatever job youre doing a mantra that grounds you in why youre doing it and helps steer you away from committing unintended harm. 1 story, 1 sentenceHistorian George Dillard shares a brief history of people renaming geographical features for petty reasons, beginning with biologist Carl Linnaeus who in the early 1700s named a seed hed discovered cuculus ingratus (ungrateful cuckoo) and mailed a packet to his rival biologist.Designer Kelly Smith on how language influences perception: In English, we imagine the past behind us and the future in front of us but in other languages, the past is in front (where you can see it) and the future behind.Marlyn Pereira catalogues the 80-plus years worth of symbolism in Kendrick Lamars halftime show, writing: He not only understands but fully embraces the weight of responsibility that comes with furthering a cause generations in the making one that intertwines art, activism, and the relentless pursuit of truth. The top highlight on Medium last weekYou dont need to be an expert. Its better to be a student. Because being a student means youre growing. And your audience will grow with you. Derek Hughes