5 ms·

As a solo developer who does all these, I have a lot of self-loathing.

duxup 8y ago
The worst are the "What the hell was I even doing here?!?!? / What does this even mean?" moments. Like at one point I thought this code was obvious and worked great. I remember feeling that way about it and feeling all accomplished here, but now I don't feel that way and this code seems impenetrable or at least a big hassle now...
- BerislavLopac 8y ago
  Software developers often forget that their biggest critic is their future self.
- widforss 8y ago
  Software development is the continual discovery that you were an idiot two weeks ago.
  - duxup 8y ago
    God knows. Especially when you're new like me. I go back even after a month and "Oh man I'd never do it like that again." No to say it didn't work or was even bad but I just found a better pattern to handle that case that I'd use by default now and it changes so much.
    - edmundsauto 8y ago
      My advice: see if you can rewire your internal rewards. That feeling is the acknowledgement that you learned something. The fact our ancient rewards system considers it embarrassing is of little importance.
      - widforss 8y ago
        Thank you, I'll keep this in mind for the next time it happens. It's just that the code is still there, and will need to be replaced in due time. Over and over again.
    - avgDev 8y ago
      I cringe when I look at some code I wrote. Some of it is maintenance nightmare, however, I read a book and found a better way to do some of those things. With each day I get better at writing maintainable code, I do less of duct taping to make things work. I feel like I'm actually getting good at this software thing, and I'm actually not a total idiot. However, sometimes I look up simple things and I think I'm still an idiot. But when I look at the bigger picture I can see how much I have learned and understand the whole process. Servers, database, software, documentation, good code is great but there is more to software and I love it.
- jnty 8y ago
  There's no feeling quite like going 'what the hell was the person who wrote this thinking??' and then doing a git blame and making a humbling discovery.
ourmandave 8y ago
#9 Flippant git commit comments nobody can understand a month later. Even future me hates me.

The worst are the "What the hell was I even doing here?!?!? / What does this even mean?" moments. Like at one point I thought this code was obvious and worked great. I remember feeling that way about it and feeling all accomplished here, but now I don't feel that way and this code seems impenetrable or at least a big hassle now...

BerislavLopac 8y ago
Software developers often forget that their biggest critic is their future self.
widforss 8y ago
Software development is the continual discovery that you were an idiot two weeks ago.
- duxup 8y ago
  God knows. Especially when you're new like me. I go back even after a month and "Oh man I'd never do it like that again." No to say it didn't work or was even bad but I just found a better pattern to handle that case that I'd use by default now and it changes so much.
  - edmundsauto 8y ago
    My advice: see if you can rewire your internal rewards. That feeling is the acknowledgement that you learned something. The fact our ancient rewards system considers it embarrassing is of little importance.
    - widforss 8y ago
      Thank you, I'll keep this in mind for the next time it happens. It's just that the code is still there, and will need to be replaced in due time. Over and over again.
  - avgDev 8y ago
    I cringe when I look at some code I wrote. Some of it is maintenance nightmare, however, I read a book and found a better way to do some of those things. With each day I get better at writing maintainable code, I do less of duct taping to make things work. I feel like I'm actually getting good at this software thing, and I'm actually not a total idiot. However, sometimes I look up simple things and I think I'm still an idiot. But when I look at the bigger picture I can see how much I have learned and understand the whole process. Servers, database, software, documentation, good code is great but there is more to software and I love it.
jnty 8y ago
There's no feeling quite like going 'what the hell was the person who wrote this thinking??' and then doing a git blame and making a humbling discovery.

ourmandave 8y ago

#9 Flippant git commit comments nobody can understand a month later. Even future me hates me.