The Wrong Test

I was raised on a simple deal. A correct answer gets an A. A wrong answer gets an F. There is no third grade, no partial credit for sincerity. The bridge holds or it drops into the river, and the river does not care how you felt about the load calculations.

I spent a career inside that deal and it never once lied to me. Code compiles or it throws an error. The circuit closes or it doesn’t. A program that almost works is a program that doesn’t work. I built companies on that certainty. I trusted it the way you trust a floor. For 80 years it has been the most dependable thing in my life, more dependable than most people, certainly more dependable than my own government.

So here is my confession. When I look at how half this country votes, the deal stops working, and I spent longer than I want to admit pretending it still did.