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"Perfect is the enemy of good" Could not agree more. Self taught programmer here too. For such a long time chasing "perfection" had me stuck where I was not fi
by manibatra 9y ago
"Perfect is the enemy of good"
Could not agree more. Self taught programmer here too. For such a long time chasing "perfection" had me stuck where I was not finishing any projects.
Taking a step back I decided that finishing projects is what really gives me happiness. They don't have to be perfect or world changing. That coupled with detachment from how the project is received has helped me so much.
Congrats on all your projects. Inspiring!
- crehn 9y agoSame here. Although it was rewarding to write "perfect" code, getting constantly hung up on the tiniest details was quite a soul-drainer. Nowadays I see more beauty in the end product and refactoring. I still keep that idea of perfection in my mind and do my best to write good code from the start, I just don't let any of it become a blocker. I'm more efficient, stress-free and productive as a result. And I don't feel as repulsed when working with other people's code.
- AstralStorm 9y agoGood thing you do not work on security or real time critical or life critical applications then. Seriously, the only kind of perfect code is the one that has been proven correct. Or in fact the proof itself. Otherwise you're talking about "code we think does the thing and looks nice".
- doubleplusgood 9y agoIn many, many circumstances, code that "does the thing [well enough]" is more than enough. Not everyone works on avionics or pacemakers.