As I gain more and more experience (I would now call myself more or less a mid-level developer), I find that the distinction that matters is not abstraction vs

As I gain more and more experience (I would now call myself more or less a mid-level developer), I find that the distinction that matters is not abstraction vs duplication, but the one between developer mindsets. I have many times met/worked with people who think the main task of the developer is to 'get shit done'. Regardless of their level of experience, these developers will churn out code and close tickets quite fast, with very little regard for abstraction, design, code reuse etc. Conversely, the approach that I feel more and more is the correct one is to treat development as primarily a mental task. Something that you first think about for a while and try to design a little. The actual typing will in this case be a secondary activity. Of course, this doesn't mean you shouldn't iterate on your design if during execution problems come up. Just that the 'thinking' part should come before the 'doing'. My feeling is that with this second approach the abstraction/duplication trade-off will not matter so much anymore. With enough experience you will figure out what you can duplicate and what you can design. And when you design you will develop an understanding of how far you should go. Approaching development as a task of simple execution I think inevitably leads to illegible spaghetti down the line.