Hamartia and the Post Mortem
March 4, 2013
I learned a new word yesterday. I love it when that happens.
The word is hamartia, and although it's often used to describe a hero's key weakness, Isabel Hyde refers to Humphrey House's work (among others), and says that modern (as of the 1960s) scholars interpret the use of hamartia as being, an error which is derived from ignorance of some material fact or circumstance, rather than the earlier consideration of it as the "tragic flaw" of an ethical nature.
Thus, Oedipus's hamartia wouldn't have been his hasty temper, which caused him to slay his father, but the unfamiliarity of his lineage which allowed him to sleep with his mother. This erroneous step, taken in ignorance, was the hamartia. Whether you talk of Oedipus or Hamlet or Macbeth, the heroes in the classical plays intended for good, not evil, to come of their actions. Tragedy came through their actions, not their intent. Hamartia is that error made through good intent but in ignorance which turns a situation to tragedy.
As I was reading through this, my mind echoed the exact same sentiments that Sydney Dekker wrote in The Field Guide to Understanding Human Error
This is not limited to ancient heroes and modern pilots. Have you ever erased the contents of a directory on accident, because you thought you were somewhere else? Rebooted the wrong machine? Thought your backups were running until you tried to restore from them?
We all commit these hamartias. We'll never be able to eliminate errors of ignorance, but we can reduce them through verifying our assumptions before we carry out actions or rely on untested resources. My advice in this would boil down to "think about what you do before you do it". I'm as guilty as anyone, but I'm always striving to get better. Hopefully you are, too.
Posted in System Administration
Email me
content rss
March 4th, 2013 at 10:36 am
Thanks for the new word. I'm left wanting by this post though. How do you identify hamartias (hamartiae?) in a post mortem, and more importantly, how do you prevent them in the future?
March 4th, 2013 at 11:04 am
That's a good question, Ben. What are your thoughts?
March 7th, 2013 at 12:21 pm
No pilot or only ones not wanting to make a terrorist statement? ;)
Very cool, I'm a student of classic drama so this is up my alley (in my wheelhouse?)
I'd still posit that Oedipus's fatal flaw was his angry hastiness: being of such a character would have led to disaster, even in spite of possessing knowledge.
I do find the statements, "Tragedy came through their actions, not their intent." and the one following, "Hamartia is that error made through good intent but in ignorance which turns a situation to tragedy." to be contradictory, don't you think?
In one case, you correctly point out that tragedy occurs through action, not their intent but then good intent coupled with ignorance somehow results in tragedy?
The character of a protagonist, as our sysadmin can be, is important, as is Oedipus's: hastiness, in O's case, led to making a rash decision. Had he not been so hasty, instead looked for more information, he could have avoided tragedy.
And this, I think is the lesson for the system administrator: a circumspect approach, considering and understanding that human error is rife.