Respect your fellow engineers, programmers, how ever you want to call them:

• When you stumble on a piece of code that looks bad or just sad, recall that you have no idea under what circumstances it was built.
• When you are making changes to a module, play within the (often just implied) conventions of naming and formatting. Make your code fit seamlessly - that will make both code review and future reading easier, less jarring. Minimize the small differences I say - it will waste less time.
• Don’t break tests and leave them broken or, worse, remove them because they are bothering you or slowing you down.
• Be humble and don’t just remove things you don’t understand: they are certainly there for a reason.
• Fix what you broke, don’t throw things “over the fence”.
• Act locally but think globally: you are part of a larger effort. Talk to others and try to understand them.

But but but: put a limit to all of this. On your path you will find engineers that will actually just optimize locally, disregarding the larger picture and the common mission.

What you definitely do not need to respect? Computers. Do not respect computers but rather make them do what you want them to do.

Last modified on 2025-02-21