Our virtual lines of code have a very real impact (+ a bonus)

A few years ago I came across the poignant testimony of a web developer who explained that he had worked on the promotional website for a drug (outside France) for a pharmaceutical company.

This drug (whose name and supposed effects I don't remember) was intended for teenage girls, and a few years later, this drug resurfaced after being at the center of a medical scandal for having caused serious illnesses in many young girls at the time, including the developer's own little sister.

You can imagine the weight of guilt he carried. Although he was of course not directly responsible for his sister's illness, he experienced it as if he were, and his testimony gave me a lot to think about at the time.

Since then, I've always looked twice before agreeing to work on a project, which even led me to refuse to work on a project as an employee, even at the risk of suffering the consequences.

In the end, there were no consequences at all and my refusal was very well understood.

I've also worked for a pharmaceutical company myself (two, in fact), but each time being careful to check the ins and outs of the project so as to be sure I could sleep soundly at night.

Today I try to always keep in mind that our lines of code, although written in a virtual environment, stored via electrons on machines whose workings few engineers understand from A to Z, can have major consequences, both positive and negative, on the lives of real living people and on the real world.

They say the devil is in the details, and accessibility, inclusivity, or the way information is presented on a website can affect the morale of a large number of people, depending on how much traffic it gets.

Of course, even when we try to do our best, mistakes can happen, but if our intention is good and well thought out, we're already headed in the right direction.

I think we shouldn't just think about the code we're writing, but also about why we decided, or agreed, to write it.

A bit of positivity

As some of you know, every Sunday evening during lockdown there's a "Game Jam de la Loose" ["Loser's Game Jam"], whose goal is to create a game in 1 hour. For those interested, here's the link to the Discord to take part: https://discord.gg/JNkNRh7UHN

Last night, I created a game modeled on a typing speed exercise, with a slightly quirky tone to match the theme, which was "black hole."

https://nicolasbrondin.github.io/hype-type/

But while developing the game, I realized it was possible to repurpose it to bring out something even more positive, almost self-therapeutic.

This morning, I quickly worked on this new version, hoping, as I've been saying throughout this article, that I had developed something that could have a positive impact (even a small one) on a few people.

Here's the game (the experience lasts barely a minute): https://nicolasbrondin.github.io/hype-type/

Feel free to share it with people to brighten everyone's day, and if you're interested, you can find the game's code open-source on Github: