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Comment by AceJohnny2 | Hacker News Reader

> Of course, you might find that your perfectly clean code isn't as helpful as you expected, depending on what you see as "clean."

To add to this, people will have different opinions on what is "clean". In fact you will have different opinions on what is "clean"!

I've lost count of the times I've written some code, only to come back the next day and re-write it into a "cleaner" version.

Like writing an essay, it takes time and iteration, and sometimes there just isn't a stable solution. This has somewhat helped me in just writing the damn code (but my ADHD brain still habitually reaches for "perfection" over "get it done")

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I remember a time in my career when I looked at some code and I was truly impressed by whoever had written it. It was different from the code I was used to finding in the company's codebase. The intent was clear, it was efficient, etc. I looked into the source code history to see who wrote it. I was surprised to find that I had written it, but I'd entirely forgotten writing it. I got a good laugh out of that... but I was mildly disappointed that I couldn't praise someone else.

Of course this is the exception rather than the rule. I've done a lot of revision on my code. If you don't look back on your code and think of ways it can improve then there's a good chance you're not learning.

"If you don't look back on your code and think of ways it can improve then there's a good chance you're not learning."

I say this exact same thing to junior engineers who are acclimating to code reviews and might be suffering a bit from imposter syndrome.

I love these rare moments when I think of solving some problem, figure out what I need to do and where, proceed to get started - only to notice I have already done this exactly the way I had planned, but forgot about it.

Yuck, sounds like it's ego driven development.

Talking with team members to get everybody to agree on what the style is can fix this.

Talking seems to not happen, in my recent work experiences - instead it's a pain to talk to people because you have to do fucking zoom meetings and it has to be scheduled. Or the company actively discourages the team from setting their own technical goals of quality in the name of some ridiculous abstracted version of addressing customer interests. It's out of balance - customer interests are left on the ground while quality is also left on the ground.

Having a tight team is what we should be focusing on! ChatGPT is going to eat so many of our jobs. We should be focusing on being excellent humans.

I was warned about that ego driven development while I was at school by the teachers. Apparently it's been formalized as gospel ... people lie to themselves calling it clean. Basking under the warm smile of Uncle Bob. Creep.

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