Code clutter is much more consequential than it gets credit for. Poor formatting, inconsistent whitespace, snips of unused code, and misleading filenames are sp

Code clutter is much more consequential than it gets credit for. Poor formatting, inconsistent whitespace, snips of unused code, and misleading filenames are speedbumps (or worse, spike strips!) that a developer is going to hit every time they sit down to code. And unlike bad abstractions -- which you can "learn" about and mentally model -- the friction of clutter is a constant damping to your productivity. Building features in a cluttered codebase is like being asked to install plumbing in a hoarder's basement. Understanding a cluttered codebase is like reading an advanced math textbook by candlelight that was written with broken typewriters by a group of modernist poets. De-cluttering is the first thing you should do, and you should stick to it above all else. Before you add tooling, before you refactor, before you abstract and framework-ize, get rid of the clutter. That means format your code, and use a linter whose rules are based on widely adopted community conventions.