“Do the right thing, then wait to get fired.” This quote is from a blog post by Google engineer Tan Chade-Meng titled “DO THE RIGHT THING, WAIT TO GET FIRED.” The content of this blog was quoted in a book about programmer collaboration, “Team Geek: A Software Developer’s Guide to Working Well with Others“ (P126), which was then cited by CoolShell’s article “My View on Performance Assessment.” I first saw this quote in CoolShell’s article. After seeing it, it stayed in my mind, and now I must copy it here:
New Google employees (we call “Nooglers”) often ask me what makes me effective at what I do. I tell them only half-jokingly that it’s very simple: I do the Right Thing for Google and the world, and then I sit back and wait to get fired. If I don’t get fired, I’ve done the Right Thing for everyone. If I do get fired, this is the wrong employer to work for in the first place. So, either way, I win. That is my career strategy.
What tremendous confidence and strength it takes to say such words! Although the original author also mentioned that this is a half-joking statement, and despite having some influence and having done some “right” things—without status and position, it is indeed difficult to say such words. But the spirit behind this quote will always encourage and inspire us—you know who I’m talking about, enduring and everlasting. There are also many articles discussing the meaning of this quote, such as “Do the Right Thing, Wait to Get Fired.”
Of course, this quote cannot be reversed. It does not mean that waiting to be fired implies doing the right thing. This quote also does not apply to those who like to idle away, because effort does not necessarily yield results, but not trying is definitely comfortable :-P I need to seriously think about what the “right thing” is and how to do something “valuable.”