We live in a blame culture. We are always looking for someone to blame whenever a situation occurs. We are in control of so much of our lives and yet instead of taking control and changing what we can change we expect someone else to do it for us. The reality is that it isn't someone else's fault - it is mine. And when I say mine I mean yours.
Every time we face an issue instead of looking at someone else to blame we should be looking at ourselves and saying - it's all my fault.
My web site got hacked
It happens, we blame the hacker, we blame the software, we blame the host. The reality is that we chose all of them. We chose a host running outdated software. We chose to download software from a "questionable" source. We chose not to do anything special to protect our site. It's all my fault.
The upgrade broke our software
The software sucks because every time "they" do an update it breaks my software. If you are using open source software, such as Joomla, then all development takes place in the open. You are free to check it at any point to ensure that nothing has changed that will "break" your software. But no, you chose not to test, not to evaluate beta releases and now you complain. If you make your living by selling the software then it's a basic responsibility of yours to ensure that your software keeps working.
How many times do we see extensions or templates break on a joomla update? Is that Joomla's fault? Can the mythical entity that is Joomla be expected to know how everyone in the world is extending the software. No of course not. That's the beauty of the software being open source - you can participate in the development and testing at any time. But if you wait until after a release and something breaks... it's all my fault.
That bug has been there for years
Joomla sucks because no one has fixed this bug I have had since version X.xx.x. Every time there is a new release people say they upgraded and their bug hasn't been fixed. But did you take the time to report the bug? If you did then did you help test a fix? The percentage of people that just assume that someone else will report it and that someone else with fix and test it far outweighs the percentage that get involved. So if the bug has been there for years - it's all my fault.
You can't fix stupid
So many times I hear people laugh and joke at those who can't do something that is considered easy. (Yes that includes me). When one person struggles with something in your software that you have carefully designed and documented they may be stupid. But when you regularly get people struggling with the same issue who is the stupid one? It's you! You clearly haven't done your job correctly. If you had then you wouldn't see the same issues coming up time and time again - it's all my fault.
