Building Software I Want to Maintain

I’m tired of clever code. I want boring, maintainable code.

The Shift

Early career: “Look at this elegant one-liner!”

Now: “Will I understand this at 2 AM when it breaks?”

What I Value Now

Explicitness over brevity. I’d rather read 10 clear lines than decode 2 clever ones.

Predictability over flexibility. Your function should do one thing, the same way, every time.

Documentation over cleverness. Comments aren’t a sign of bad code. They’re a sign you’re thinking about the next person.

Tests over hope. If you can’t test it, simplify it.

Code I Want to Maintain

# Not this
result = [x for x in data if validate(x) and transform(x)["valid"]]

# This
validated_items = []
for item in data:
    if not validate(item):
        continue
    
    transformed = transform(item)
    if transformed["valid"]:
        validated_items.append(transformed)

result = validated_items

Is the second version longer? Yes. Will I understand it in 6 months? Also yes.

The Questions I Ask

Before merging code:

Will this make sense to someone who didn’t write it?

Can I debug this at 2 AM?

What happens when this breaks?

Is this the simplest solution that works?

The Reminder

You’ll spend more time reading code than writing it. Write code you want to read.

Future you will thank you. So will your team.