Ruby On Rails Blog

Programmer Philosophy

April 9th, 2010

I write code for a living. Even when I am writing code by myself, there are actually three people working with that code.

First, there is me. I am a clever and talented programmer. I know to keep my code clean and easy to read. I try to do things the right way and I know that if old code is wrong that I am better off fixing it now then trying to code around it.

Second, there is past me. This guy is a fracking moron. He pisses me off on a daily basis as I am having to constant re-write his code. He is generally clueless and causes me more headaches than anyone else.

Finally there is the future me. This guy is smarter than I am, has seen more than I have and has done more. My goal, in addition to making sure my code works, is to make sure that my intentions are clear for him so that I don’t piss him off too badly.

When I claim to be a moron, it is a matter of perspective. Compared to my 8 year old self, I am brilliant. Compared to myself in 10 years; not so much. Therefore, it is safe to say that anything I wrote in the past was written by someone dumber than I am.

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Saw that here: http://www.cimgf.com/2009/03/26/dont-blindly-trust-debb/ – very eloquently expressed, but really focuses in on the fact that as programmers we are always improving.

Categories: Productivity

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