Re:Ask HN: What's one coding habit that separates great dev ...
by sloaken on Friday November 06, 2026 @10:30AM
(#50393544)
Clearly productivity. But as a refinement, productivity without documentation is called a hack, not a great development.
Documentation - a significant amount of work ends up being maintenance. If you cannot explain why you did something, or refuse to waste your time explaining, then you are a poser. Chesterton's fence IS a critical problem. If you do not document why, you condemn those that follow to throw your crap out and just redo all of it.
Willingness to learn. The world is not stopping anytime soon. Each year you do not advance, you are going backwards.
Sorry that is 3 one things, I just did not want to post 3 times :-)
Documentation - a significant amount of work ends up being maintenance. If you cannot explain why you did something, or refuse to waste your time explaining, then you are a poser. Chesterton's fence IS a critical problem. If you do not document why, you condemn those that follow to throw your crap out and just redo all of it.
Willingness to learn. The world is not stopping anytime soon. Each year you do not advance, you are going backwards.
Sorry that is 3 one things, I just did not want to post 3 times :-)