Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand.
Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code by Martin Fowler
Hi, I’m Lee Dunkley and I’ve been working with code for over 15 years. For the vast majority of that time I’ve been the confident “fool”, churning out out code and thinking I’m pretty good at it. Maybe even better than most people.
Then came the “valley of despair”; was my code really better, was my code really even good?
Worst of all, I was often an outspoken and scathing critic of all that I saw as “legacy code”. I made my comments, all whilst harbouring the secret fear that I too was pumping out the legacy code of tomorrow.
Luckily this paranoia kicked a bit of humility into me and I’ve been on a fantastic learning quest ever since.
Day by day, practices like DDD, TDD – plus an addiction to all things Software Design – are helping me become just a little less foolish.