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Software development topics I've changed my mind on

(chriskiehl.com)
873 points belter | 1 comments | 05 Feb 25 09:50 UTC | HN request time: 0.209s | source
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latexr ◴[05 Feb 25 11:39 UTC] No.42947128[source]▶
> Most won't care about the craft. Cherish the ones that do, meet the rest where they are

> (…)

> People who stress over code style, linting rules, or other minutia remain insane weirdos to me. Focus on more important things.

What you call “stressing over minutiae” others might call “caring for the craft”. Revered artisans are precisely the ones who care for the details. “Stressing” is your value judgement, not necessarily the ground truth.

What you’re essentially saying is “cherish the people who care up to the level I personally and subjectively think is right, and dismiss everyone who cares more as insane weirdos who cannot prioritise”.

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1. diddid ◴[06 Feb 25 01:07 UTC] No.42957674[source]▶
The idea that style and linting define the “craft” is bizarre. What it sounds like you are saying is that you prefer style over substance. Not a single developer I’ve ever revered cared about styling. It’s a means to an end for large teams because to make it easy to read you need commonality.

It’s kind of like what Bruce Lee said about punches. Before you know how to code, styling is just styling. When you become proficient in coding, styling is more than just styling. But when you’ve mastered coding, styling is just styling again. Be like water my friend.