Re:Clean code won't save the planet
by darthrupert on Friday November 06, 2020 @02:25PM
(#25010338)
That would assume people would use that free time for those things instead of, say, youtube.
It also neatly ignores that code will be ready many more times than it will be written. How about all that time wasted trying to pick apart someone else's shitty code? When do I get the years of my life back because someone couldn't be arsed to indent?
Technical debt is recognized for a reason - it costs.
I think a better perspective is this: the impact per time unit of clean code is vanishingly tiny.
If you actually care about the environment, then it's orders of magnitude more effective to write "dirty" code, and then use the free time it gives you to do things that actually make a difference: volunteering, lobbying, raising awareness, writing to representatives, working and donating the $ to environmental groups, etc.
The question isn't about whether something is a net positive or not, it never has been. The question is, is it the biggest positive you can achieve with your limited time/resources.
Which is where the author is right -- focusing on clean code (unless you're Netflix-scale) is a massive time and energy suck away from action that can make a much larger difference.