Your Great Code

Great code does not come from code reviews, code quality reports, using the latest tool or programming language.  Great code is built by developers who care about their work…

Where does this passion for code come from?  It comes from within.  Somewhere in your past this attitude or culture was impressed upon you. It makes up your value system, your personal philosophy.   

My journey began working on my first car with my Dad.  My feeble attempts to tape and rig my car into working order didn’t work.  Most of my repair attempts just made things worse.  Dad impressed on me two lessons;

• If something is worth doing, it is worth doing right
• Finding the correct way to fix a problem is always the best solution

We purchased a shop manual for the car and made regular trips to junk yards. Understanding the mechanics of the car and obtaining the correct parts made a big difference in my repairs.

I attended a small liberal arts college in Rome, GA - Berry College. All students were encouraged to work on campus.  My job was helping our stonemason in the repair and caring of the stone walkways and walls that made up parts of the campus.  I mixed concrete and hauled stones.

I learned to mix concrete and select the right stones for a repair. I also discovered that helping getting the correct slope on a walk way so rain doesn't pool imparted a degree of satisfaction. I learned the value of work done well.

Berry has a student code, during my college days it seemed like a relic from the past.  Time has helped me understand its wisdom.

"I promise not to be content with slip-shod or merely passable work.  I will take an interest in all my work and learn to do the right thing in the right way".
- The Berry Code circa 1920

How did you learn to care about your code?