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Comment by BurningFrog | Hacker News Reader

Also the best way to write good software.

First wrote bad code that works, then fix what's wrong with it.

    1. Make it work.
    2. Make it work *right*.
    3. Make it work fast.
    (4. Make it work right again…)

I put a "make it readable" step in there somewhere, but basically that's the cycle.

I agree. Especially when you don't really know how something is going to work. So many times when I'm working on a hard problem, coding out half a solution makes the rest of it naturally fall out (or show that I was completely wrong) without having to consciously think about it.

Unfortunately a lot of folks I met fall into this trap: I'm a senior engineer with XX years of experience, I cannot write bad code.

Still haven't found a good way to convince them.

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