The following is based on a conversation had with fellow Andy Russo earlier this year.
We’ll do a little expedition into the German language.
“conscientiously” is a weird word, it’s one that Germans use often, but the translation is not a great one. Or rather the meaning of the German word is lost.
The German word “Gewissenhaft” is put together of 1. “Gewissen” which one could say describes the feeling you have in your stomach. When you do something with good Gewissen it’s an action that you think is right and supposed to happen. 2. The “-haft” part does not make sense in itself but here it means something like “contains”. Such that it ends up meaning “done out of noble idea”, “done with virtue”, “done up to a high standard” or just “well intentioned”.
In that way you would attribute Gewissenhaftigkeit (the attribution for somebody to work gewissenhaft) for example to a good politician who after his term is proud about what he has done or rather has done nothing wrong or against his moral.
It’s a term I appreciate and that means a lot, it’s what one should strive to be.