I stopped reading at this point: > We spend endless amounts of time bikeshedding the right syntax, indentation level, tabs vs spaces, or where to put code in t

I stopped reading at this point: > We spend endless amounts of time bikeshedding the right syntax, indentation level, tabs vs spaces, or where to put code in the structure of files, but this all feels just pointless - these are all properties of text, but the text is just a tool to manipulate some abstract model of the program. No we don't spend endless time doing this. We automate as much of that as possible. I haven't cared about syntax for whitespace for years (I mean, I care and I have opinions, but I almost never have to work on it). One item from the list, which we can't automate, is a really important part of the job: "where to put code in the structure of files". This is an intrinsic part of the solution modelling. Often this is something you want to change as the project expands. What are the modules and objects of your application? What are their responsibilities? Does this new object now have responsibility for that thing over there? These are key questions to answer on a daily basis. I agree with the complaints against boilerplate. Boilerplate can help decide where a bit of code should live, but it also gets in the way when changing that decision is the best thing to do. We don't teach or celebrate refactoring enough (at least, not in the places and projects I've worked). Perhaps I should read more of the article...