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Good code is not like art, such as good books or paintings. No matter the quality of your code, if the product or service is not a good market fit. It will be r
by hkon 3y ago
Good code is not like art, such as good books or paintings.
No matter the quality of your code, if the product or service is not a good market fit. It will be retired. No one will stumble upon it or pick it up after it's gone. Knowing this, the only reason for putting effort into it is to make it easier for myself.
- majikandy 3y agoThe two aren’t always mutually exclusive, you might be writing code for a good market fit that stands the test of time and needs maintaining. The times you appreciate it are actually when you open something and it’s nice and easy to change and you realise you were the one who wrote it. But real developer happiness comes when you have the same experience and someone else wrote it.
- hkon 3y agoIndeed, I'm just trying to highlight your efforts as an 'artist' might be wasted. I recently worked on a project with some seriously clean code. My job? Shut it down. This made me sad.
- mostlylurks 3y ago> No matter the quality of your code, if the product or service is not a good market fit. It will be retired. No one will stumble upon it or pick it up after it's gone. This applies to artistic endevours like books and paintings as well (especially those two, since markets for them are very oversaturated). Your technique might be masterful, but if your art doesn't align with current trends (along with a number of other factors), it'll drown in the endless barrage of other art, and nobody will stumble upon it or pick it up, even if it's still available.
- hkon 3y agoYes I thought about that, I was thinking in the sense that someone in the future might actually stumble upon a painting or a book. They won't with proprietary forgotten code.