He is No Grace Hopper

If you don’t know about Grace Hopper, you probably never worked in the computer field. Grace Hopper was a computer scientist, mathematician, and a rear admiral in the United States Navy. She created the first working compiler and programming language called FLOW-MATIC which was used as the foundation for COBOL. COBOL (Common Business Oriented Language), is still the hidden backbone of global enterprise infrastructure that manages 80% of today’s in-person banking activities handling over $3 trillion in daily commerce.

It was Rear Admiral Grace Hopper who famously said, “It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to get permission.” This philosophy, aka Hopper’s Law, was to be adopted to cut through stifling bureaucracies to take the initiative, using calculated risks, to get the job done.

I doubt President Trump knows anything about Grace Hopper, but he has recklessly adopted her philosophy without implementing it as intended. You see, while Hopper’s Law inspired initiative, it was to be used for agile problem solving and not for major issues with significant consequences. It was intended for times when you genuinely believe you are right and are willing to take responsibility for failure. Be prepared to own your mistakes.

Hopper’s Law works if you are smart and have analyzed a problem sufficiently to assess the consequences of your actions. It is not a platform for reckless behavior. Grace Hopper would never have invaded Iran and risked global economic damage and the loss of lives. She would not have destabilized the American and global economies with a maze of fluctuating tariffs. Grace Hopper would not have said, “I know a guy,” when it came to repairing a national monument like the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool. She would never have destroyed the east wing of the White House, the people’s house, to build a ballroom in her honor.

No, Donald Trump is no Grace Hopper.

Postscript: While Hopper was working on a malfunctioning Mark II Computer at Harvard University, she and her associates found a moth stuck in a relay that was impeding its proper functioning. She had found a “bug in the system.” They attached the dead moth to their work log with their report. She had “debugged” a computer.