@andrewstellman@mastodon.socialI’ve been thinking about how rarely code stays the same. Every system I’ve worked on, no matter how well-designed, has evolved over time (except for the ones that got cancelled by management after months of development!).
Good developers write code that’s easy to change because most useful code won’t stay the same. The requirements shift, the team learns more, and real-world use exposes flaws that weren’t obvious at first.
If a piece of code never changes, that usually means one of two things: it’s either too generic to be useful or too specific to be reused. Code evolves. It gets updated, refactored, and adapted as the system grows.
If a method, class, function, or module has been sitting untouched for years, it’s worth asking why. Is it genuinely well-designed, or is everyone avoiding it because making changes is painful?
@andrewstellman the best advice I've received from a staff engineer is "when facing multiple ways to do something - pick the one which is easiest to move away from"
@marcusnordberg great advice! i feel like helping a junior dev understand exactly what it means would be a good way to mentor them.