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Don’t be a software engineer, be an exceptional one
1. Pragmatic
“In software, the most beautiful code, the most beautiful functions, and the most beautiful programs are sometimes not there at all” — Jon Bentley
Pragmatic software engineers solve problems using the simplest ways which focus on core functionalities, reuse existing functions when possible, or even delete an existing code. Their designs and code are easy to read, debug and maintain.
Engineers are often tempted to rebuild or complicate things for the sake of building future-proof solutions, which might never be needed.
Keeping your design and code simple doesn’t mean sacrificing quality to save cost or time, it just means avoid adding features that will never be used, abstractions that might never be implemented or unnecessary optimization.
Software engineers tend to complicate solutions in multiple ways, such as:
- Optimizing a system to process 100 TPS instead of 50, while the customer demands 20 TPS
- Spending a couple of weeks redesigning a software to reduce its infrastructure cost by $100/year when slight…
