This is absolutely the rule. The problem I see a lot is that someone else will come in and want to add an edge case to my generalized code or will try to includ

This is absolutely the rule. The problem I see a lot is that someone else will come in and want to add an edge case to my generalized code or will try to include edge cases in their "generalized" code. Personally, I have 0 problems with DRY code. I don't even treat it like a requirement but sometimes, I'm trying to code something and I KNOW the code needs to be generalized or at least part of it and that's when I'll spend an hour on a 15 min fix. Effective DRY comes with experience.