Humility

One of the guys at our company said on a recent XP project, "I love XP! I feel
like an idiot every day! When I wasn't doing XP, I thought I was brilliant. Now I
know I'm not, but I don't care because I've learned so much!" We thought about
getting t-shirts made that say "Join the Extreme Programming Software
Studio
…Feel like an idiot every day!" We haven't done it yet because we aren't
sure how many others would see the splendor in the statement. Go figure.
You won't last long in a brutally honest environment without being humble.
Other than quitting, it is the only reaction that makes sense. Your mistakes,
weaknesses, selfishness and pride will be put on display. You can get humble real
fast, quit because you hate embarrassment, or stay brazenly arrogant and be sacked
by your team. This is a tough choice for many developers.

Developers are smart people in general. The ones known as "experts" will have
the hardest time getting humble. Often, they'll do whatever they can to avoid it.
Ironically, the reputation they are guarding dwindles as they begin to be seen as
arrogant. Work gets done without them. When they choose to participate, they're
behind everyone else. The rest of the team gets frustrated with having to catch them
up all the time.
It isn't any better for "experts" (or just good developers) who give humility the
old college try. On just about any team we're on, we find that we often have much
more experience than others on the team. But not a day goes by when we don't make
mistakes that are caught by our pairs. When Ken coaches, he sometimes says
apparently contradictory things. He can't count the number of times he's had to
admit he actually was inconsistent. He has never regretted that. The result is always
positive. Everybody learns. Sometimes, they learn that Ken can be an idiot, too.
Everybody on an XP team should feel like an idiot regularly. That's healthy.
Instead of paying lip service to the phrase "nobody's perfect," we realize it every
day.
This whole humility thing may seem ludicrous to those who listen to us (and
other Xpers) talk about how great XP is. But, please recognize the difference. We
personally realize that we make mistakes and they are going to be found out. That
gives us confidence that we are doing great work. Fewer mistakes go unnoticed.
And, we are moving faster and more confidently than we ever have before. We may
not be moving faster and more confidently than YOU ever have before, but we've
seen the difference it has made for us. It is quite remarkable and you cannot deny
that we have noticed a marked difference.