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It's not just programming, though. A large part of it is defining the product roadmap: code can get a lot better if a product team has the guts to unequivocally say that some features are not going to be part of the product, ever, such as running the web app in CLI. That's not just a programming decision - though I guess influencing the product roadmap could be seen as part of the art in programming as well.

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Yeah I had a manager that was quite good at throwing out functionality. Didn't like it at the time, but they were mostly right - of course they were just trying to save money.

I like this. Because time after time after time I have seen the opposite. Managers saying "but we might need it again later" and...

We. Never. Have.

And even if we did... its still under source control if you really want to dig it out.

Second that, after 34 years in the game I'm always on the lookout for dead or dying code. Every line I can put out of its misery is one less to deal with in the future.

And I find that removing dead code often unlocks further improvements that become obvious without the noise.

Even if the functionality is needed down the line, it tends to require massive rewrites to catch up.

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