I am an idiot, so much I need reminding...

I have set a new task for my collegues at work, specifically it was a task for one of them hoever he has been somewhat remiss in his duties therefore I am widening the call to arms. Someone is to remind me, I originally said only in the morning but I feel there is a requirement for a lunchtime spot as well, that I am an idiot. With the help of those around me I belive that I can remove the fruitless time that I spend each day working on a problem under the misapprehension that I cannot be wrong so it must be something else. Going into these problems with the knowledge that I am an idiot will encourage me to first look for the stupid thing that I am bound to have done.

This is going to form one of the precepts of my new guide to being a programmer which I will probably never actually write down other then here. Another is my innovative new approach to project management, using the technique "Disaster Points". My theory is that for any project you should plan at least one, although there could be many, "Disaster Point". This is, as the name suggests, a point at which you plan to have all the things that will go wrong, go wrong. Once you have your "Disaster Point" planned there is no way that it can sneak up on you and scare you. [Note: This is very similar to the theory of buying a bullet and scratching you name into it so you know exactly where the "bullet with your name on it" is...]

Now if only people in the office would remember to remind me that I am an idiot things will go much better, unlike the last few days where I have been an idiot several times. I may have "the '/' patter in XSLT is treated differently by different processors" branded into the back of my hand so that I don't ever forget it again, that was todays idiot moment (well 15 minutes of idiot moment)...