Admiral Adama: In your opinion, off the record, what was Garner’s flaw?

Major Lee Adama: He was used to working with machines. Command is about people.

Admiral Adama: Remember that, as you take command of “The Beast” (Pegasus). Garner was my decision; his failures, my responsibility. Don’t let me fail a second time. Congratulations, Commander.

Those are the dialogue form a TV series titled Battlestar Galactica – Reimagined Series, or fans usually call it as Battlestar RDM (Ronald D. Moore), or you can even make it shorter BSG RDM. And for your information, it was on episode 17 season 2.

Why those conversation have a deep meaning in my heart?

It flashes back to last year and relates to my present.

So, maybe you can guess that I’m watching Battlestar Galactica at this moment. I’m considering myself not a heavy sci fi fan yet, but to certain extend, I just can sync with some sci fi series or movies recently. It started with Doctor Who, Serenity, Startrek, and now BSG. Although that most of the sci fi series that I watched are the re-imagined or the remake which according to some of my friends is somewhat not that sci fi compared to the original one, I felt that there is still something that I can pick up from there. Well, maybe to some people movies are just movies or as entertainment, but to me, the good movies can inspire the audience and they bring some messages to the viewers.

Anyway.. back to our topic. This quote reminds me that, I used to believe that completing the task entrusted to me is far more important than how I face the problems or how I solve the problem. I forgot that the “journey” is far more valuable that. Thus, I didn’t really enjoy the moment I was doing it, because I worried too much about my performance, which I believe it also happens to all of us. Then it comes when working with people, instead of working as a team, I prefer to do it according to my standard, well have some little discussion but I feel that it still not good enough. I was so self centered at that time. I can enjoy to work by my own as a programmer, keep working and working to achieve the perfect, ideal, good result as I imagined inside my head.

So, those conversation above is somehow slap me and wake me up. Hey, life is not like that. I know that it may not be true since it only a movie, but once again, it left a deep impression in my heart.

In conclusion, I learned a very valuable lesson from this episodes. As there are many more good quotes and good lessons, I hope I could share more about it in my future posts.

Source:

1. http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/The_Captain%27s_Hand
2. http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Portal:Battlestar_Galactica_(RDM)
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_D._Moore