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Learning Oracle PL/SQL
book

Learning Oracle PL/SQL

by Bill Pribyl, Steven Feuerstein
November 2001
Beginner content levelBeginner
424 pages
11h 11m
English
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Content preview from Learning Oracle PL/SQL

Answering the Objections

Some will think I'm being naïve, that these are the unfortunate and inevitable victims of "friendly fire" on the battlefield of capitalism. Or they will recite the excuse, "If I don't do it, someone else will." A typical programmer might say, "Hey, don't blame me, some guy in marketing makes all those decisions." I'll address these objections one at a time.

Friendly fire

This objection goes like this: "I know that some people might get hurt, but most will be served." This is a version of utilitarianism or "the greatest good for the greatest number of people." I believe that the collateral damage from thoughtless (or perhaps merely careless) database practices can result in unacceptable risks to personal safety and well-being. If I can't achieve 100% precision in identifying which customers are willing to share their personal information, I should be forced to suffer the consequences, not the customer.

If I don't do it, someone else will

This kind of thinking leads to the conclusion that anything anybody could do and get away with is okay. A close corollary to this excuse: people whose description of their jobs includes the expression "...and it's perfectly legal!" The underlying theme is the substitution of self-interest in place of any kind of external authority. I certainly wouldn't want to hire someone with such a view as my database administrator, nor would I want to resort to these excuses to justify my own work.

Somebody else's problem

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 0596001800Supplemental ContentCatalog PageErrata