> I think a big mistake developers make is thinking "make code better" should be on some roadmap. You should be making code better every time you touch it. Nothing about writing a new feature says that you have to integrate it in the sloppiest way possible.
I vehemently agree.
One of my first jobs was working for a mathematician at a bank, who could code well enough to compute his mathematical ideas, but not a software engineer so hired me to do more of the coding for his team.
He would say "Jim, just get this done but don't spend time making it fancy." In other words, don't spend time refactoring or cleaning up the code, expressed in his own words.
I would say "sure" and then proceed to refactor and clean up the code as I went. It took less time than it would have to write the code "ugly" then deal with the accumulated tech debt, and I finished everything on time so he was happy.
I vehemently agree.
One of my first jobs was working for a mathematician at a bank, who could code well enough to compute his mathematical ideas, but not a software engineer so hired me to do more of the coding for his team.
He would say "Jim, just get this done but don't spend time making it fancy." In other words, don't spend time refactoring or cleaning up the code, expressed in his own words.
I would say "sure" and then proceed to refactor and clean up the code as I went. It took less time than it would have to write the code "ugly" then deal with the accumulated tech debt, and I finished everything on time so he was happy.