What I know about the computer programming life, from my own experience and that of good creators of code I know, is that this is a profession that forces us to learn how to do things better all the time. Sometimes that means re-learning a type of logic we worked on in the past, while at other times it means we have to learn a new language. Ultimately, this leads to the most important thing I think we do: maintain and review code.

No, code maintenance is often not sexy and it’s not always the most innovative thing we can work on. But it’s a critical part of the job.

WHY WE UPDATE

To make sure all the things that start off being the best stay that way, they need to be constantly re-evaluated, re-analyzed, poked, and prodded. We need to see if they’re still actually useful and good after awhile, right? Think about it: When you buy a car and it works perfectly, you’re pretty happy and don’t think much about maintenance. But what if it develops faults? Do you wait for hubcaps to go flying before you begin maintaining it? The answer is an obvious no.” Coding