What are you proud of?

I try not to be 'proud' of things I've done because I do believe that pride comes before a fall, but every time I see a newspaper article mention that apology I'm reminded that I did that.

When people ask me what I'm proud of I always list the stuff that gave me most satisfaction. I often start with the stuff that they would understand or heard of, but if you'd ask me again I'd probably list some obscure stuff.

For example, I am really proud that I started the online version of the Romanian Computer Science olympiad for high school students. I convinced people to let me build a parallel online system where we'd post the problems at the same time with the real contest, and people would submit solutions by the end of the allocated time, and then we'd grade those too. Totally unofficial, just for kicks and training.

It's a stupid thing that nobody ever heard of here, but I'm still terribly proud of it, it made a huge difference in the life of some kids and it would not have happened if it wasn't for me, so I'm quite proud of that.

For starters, pride can come from things you didn't even do -- and people who are not you. You can be proud of your kid. You can be proud of your student. You can be proud of your husband, wife, boyfriend/girlfriend, parents, friends, etc.

It's good to be proud when people you care about accomplish something they struggled with, something difficult, something important.

And, you are a person you care about. (Or at least, you should be.)

Pride means giving yourself credit where credit is due. In enjoying the things you worked hard to achieve.

Nowhere in the dictionary definition of "pride" will you find "holding yourself above other people, thinking you're better than them and better than Creation, blah blah blah."

Vanity, on the other hand, is defined as excessive pride. We've all known vainglorious jerks who had excessive pride.

And we've also all known people who were good people, who did good work, who worked hard, who did hard things -- who had insufficient pride, who didn't give themselves enough credit, who wrote off all their accomplishments and generally made themselves (and the people who loved them & wanted the best for them) miserable.

I'm honestly shocked that (at writing) the 2 top-level comments on this article are "Pride is a sin" and "I try not to be 'proud' of things I've done".

Where's the evidence that pride is bad, guys? Do you have something other than the Bible to back you up?

Pride is a sin.

I found it curious that in the unofficial ranking of the seven deadly sins, pride was considered the worst. How could this be? Pride worse than greed? Than wrath? It didn't add up.

Then I looked at the rationale behind it. Pride puts ones self before god. It says that my accomplishments, my work, my existence, is greater than all of creation. And that line of thinking can actually fuel the remaining six sins. Pride can lead to greed. Pride can cause you to rest slothfully upon your laurels.

I'm not a religious man, but that rationale has always resonated with me.