Link: The Grug Brained Developer

There are so many truisms in The Grug Brained Developer. I enjoyed it immensely; the writing is somehow so, so apt for its subject. So many clubbable grugs. Including myself, of course, but I think I’ve learned.

complexity is spirit demon that enter codebase through well-meaning but ultimately very clubbable non grug-brain developers and project managers who not fear complexity spirit demon or even know about sometime

one day code base understandable and grug can get work done, everything good!

next day impossible: complexity demon spirit has entered code and very dangerous situation!

I’ve spent time making a home for the complexity demon in my code, and then I’ve spent more time regretting it, and then even more time having to knock down the walls and rebuild to banish it. I have learned to fear.

One’s own demons are painful, but taming the demons of those who have gone on to receive many shiny rocks is the most frustrating of all.

early on in project everything very abstract and like water: very little solid holds for grug’s struggling brain to hang on to. take time to develop “shape” of system and learn what even doing. grug try not to factor in early part of project and then, at some point, good cut-points emerge from code base

I’ve often thought of code in terms of its shapes, and interlocks and cogs. This bit moves that bit. Until the brain starts to really bring these parts into focus, and not feel them slippery as eels, no it is not the time yet to think about elegant and maintainable code. But, conversely, if the system is never factored, the complexity demon lurks! Picking the right time to factor hurts head of smartest grugs.

test shaman have good point on importance of test, even if test shaman often sometimes not complete useful feature in life and talk only about test all time, deserve of club but heart in right place

Sigh, yes, deserve of club, but heart in right place. So many grugs.