My coworker told me to just write the code, even if it's bad, and it actually worked

I was stuck trying to make a perfect little program to sort my movie list. He walked by and said, 'Just type something, anything. You can fix it later.' So I wrote a messy script with three nested loops. It was slow, but it ran. After it worked, I cleaned it up in about twenty minutes. Has anyone else found that just getting a rough version down is the hardest part?

3 comments

3 Comments

irisross2mo ago

That advice can be a real trap... it just leads to more work later. A messy first draft creates a foundation you have to fix, and sometimes the bad parts get stuck in. Taking a minute to plan a cleaner structure from the start saves hours of cleaning up tangled code. I've had to rewrite entire sections because the rough version was built on a bad idea. Getting something down is important, but starting with a decent plan is better than starting with a mess.

harris.brooke2mo ago

Ever think a messy draft saves time? I did, but your point about bad ideas sticking changed my mind.

janaf911mo ago

Wait, you had to rewrite entire sections? That sounds like a nightmare. I'd lose my mind if a bad draft wasted that much time. Cleaner starts definitely seem worth the extra few minutes up front.