Professional *

*(adjective)characterized by or conforming to the technical or ethical standards of a profession.exhibiting a courteous, conscientious, and generally businesslike manner in the workplace.

from Merriam-Webster dictionary

Nothing to say more, isn't it?

Sorry, but I will step out of the theme a bit... As one of the aspects of our professionalism and professionalism of scientists in common worries me more than others...

Ethical standards? What are they? The one of main questions which blows up my head from time to time is the ethical side of inventions in IT and Technologies. Common case for inventions is that they find the usage in army first, after that they serve us in our peaceful live.

Zuse tried to build his computers and offer them for calculation of wing's aerodynamics for Luftwaffe, and his S1 was "misused" to calculate wings measurement for bombs (1). "Peaceful atom was born" after nuclear bombs. Encoding was used to hide messages from enemies (i.e. Enigma). Modems were used for military bases connection. ARPANET turned into Internet... and so on... 

So it turns out that the war is the engine of technical and social progress. What ethical standards we (future IT developers) must have then? Can the blood washed out by future peaceful use of the invention used for war? Can we avoid this step?

I tried to Google the question:

In general Ethical codes of companies assert that IT professionals need to commit to:
Integrity
Competence
Professional responsibilities
Work responsibilities
Societal responsibilities (again... what are they?)

While different companies build their own ethical standards which we must conform to (if we work there), there is still a place for our own ethical rules.(2)

For me the pure ethical standard is to not use knowledge, the power of knowledge against people, humanity, lives...as for many of us, I believe. Being human, humanic, behave politely and even know some etiquette, all this also can be summarized with ethics. But, still, can I say that the invention for army, for offensive is not professional or made by diletants. Ethics... is to personal for everyone.

What about technical standards, the time changes requirements so fast, that the main technical standard must be to adapt to changes, we must be self-educative, in additional to past knowledges, we must absorb new ones, to be afloat, and have divergent thinking. I belong to people, who think that even if you are eaten, you still have two ways out (¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ) The most important, that we must know past but not live with the past. Sometimes, when I hear that Estonia invented Skype or Kazaa, I think: "Hey! Enough to think about past, we need fresh look, fresh mind. It's great, but let move forward." We must know our work, we also must love our work. Successful person does what he loves to do. People are build so, that they evolve more in thing, deed, that they like to do, than in others, and this evolution makes us better, superior... or more professional...

And of course, we must have communication skills. Who thinks other way, makes a big mistake (like I do), as even if someone of us we'll be just an usual developer in huge company, he'll still have to "sell" his ideas, decisions, thoughts. I don't mean "sell for money" by "sell", I mean, that he'll have to fight for the life of the idea in the society, as there are a lot of same "usual developers" around, which want to reach their own target, success.

I mentioned, that I made a mistake with communication skills. Well, I wasn't interested in communication with others since my childhood and expect some constraints now. However, I like to write, so I can be a professional spammer :).

So... be polite, humanic, do in favour of peaceful progress, don't live in past, educate and adapt faster, love your profession (salary won't make you love it). Peace to your all.