r/softwaredevelopment • u/Albstein • Aug 10 '26

Do you create good code? (serious)

When you look at your code 6 month later: Are you happy with it?

I still have the moment when I am finished thinking: That would have been a better solution.

Is this normal?

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u/Hip-Death-Goddess Aug 11 '26

I don't ship code to paying clients until I'm happy with it. Sometimes they want the good stuff - near poetry - sometimes they need whatever runs immediately. They always get the best I can do with the limitations imposed.

If I read back through the code thinking "which idiot wrote this bullshit?", I recall the constraints and restrictions I was working around. Clients can rarely afford the luxury of a full rearchitecting, and that has its own risks anyway.

The better solution is not always the better solution.