Between the lines

As coders we are constantly making decisions. This is what we do, it is our duty. Our decisions have a lot of impact. They affect the success of the project or product. They affect all stakes of the software, the users that are going to use it, and in enterprise even the company behind the employees that are going to use it. And of course they affect our own and/or our companies reputation. They affect what problems we face when we engage upcoming tasks, our co-workers future mood and even our own. Bad decisions can easily make us suffer.

What we do is not a routine, ever. We might have patterns, practices, principles and experience. Yet still, every new decision that we make has a unique context. This is why our work is very creative.

Sometimes we make good decisions and sometimes we make bad ones. This is true for all types of coders from juniors to masters. Sometimes we make bad decisions because we just don't know any better, due to a lack of programming-, technology- or domainknowledge. And sometimes we make bad decisions because we are being put under pressure.

Bad decisions are expensive and dangerous. They produce technical debt, and it is not uncommon that they lead us to even more bad decisions. Slowly but surely this burden becomes heavier. It cost us time, energy and money. In extreme cases it gets so expensive that it would be favorable to completely start over.

Willingly or not, because of the decisions we make, we coders are in great power. We are leaders, and we can easily steer towards failure. We are not just the ones to write lines. We are not just code monkeys. We are the ones who design the heart of the Software and bear great responsibility.

When everyone gets mad because of a problem, maybe a date or even a deadline, we coders are the ones to stay strong. We are the ones to keep calm, and disillusion the others. We know the code, so we know the truth. If we don't stand up, whoelse should?

It is hard to act professionally and responsible at any time, but it's mostly a good choice. Thankfully, code is very forgivingly in its nature. We can change it, thus allowing us to revert our decisions. We should value this changeability in the code. We should even take action to improve it. Maybe that'd be a good choice!?

I would like to end this post with a quote by @WoodyZuill:

„Be the programmer you want to see in the world.“